Nox
by E.H. Fluhr
Summary: Fellyra "Outis" has travelled many Earths; every fight, every injury, every punch, and every kill has led her to this moment, on this earth. She has lived her life by one rule: "the ends justify the means", but will that all change when she meets the bat family and Young Justice. Can she be saved from her past, her legacy?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

"_You don't meet people by accident._

_There's always a reason._

_A lesson or a blessing"_

_\- _Unknown Author

* * *

The Justice League and Young Justice

Happy Harbor, The Cave

December 31, 2012 23:45 EDT

* * *

"This is nice." M'gann levitated over to her friends with drinks floating beside her. She passed a cup to each of the senior members of the Young Justice team with a smile. "I think this is the first New Years, since we became a team, that we weren't fighting crime."

"I must agree, my friend." Kalder smiled, taking a sip from the punch that the Martian brought over. "But it is also strange that the villains have gone quiet, especially the Light."

Kid Flash groaned loudly, leaning on his girlfriend dramatically. This action caused Artemis to roll her eyes and look to the Batfamily for some kind of help from the first Robin, now Nightwing. He wasn't looking their way, instead, he smirked and rubbed the 2nd Robin's hair who swatted at him. Batgirl also seemed to be teasing the youngest member. For once, the Batfamily seemed to be enjoying themselves and Artemis was glad that Beast Boy brought up the idea of having a party for the New Year. And it seemed that the other original members, along with the JLA agreed as they looked upon the Batfamily. It was also the first time in a while since they all saw Nightwing.

"Let us hope you didn't jinx us, Kalder." Zatanna giggled, and as if she had just spoken one of her spells, the Cave's computer flickered to life. The Joker's malicious smile filled the screen and his crazy chuckle echoed around the room.

"Happy New Year, World!" The mad clown chuckled as he spun around with the camera. "Well I'm 10 minutes early, but we are planning to draw this new year in with a bang! Literally."

The camera turned and showed an image of the President tied to a chair, a jack-in-the-box bomb near his feet. He struggled against his restraints and tried to talk around the gag in his mouth. His eyes were filled with fear, alerting the heroes that this was no joke. Other villains surrounded the President, so even if he did, by some chance, get free, he would never escape.

The camera turned back to the Joker who seemed to put it down or give it to a henchman. He moved back, and closer to the President before doing a little dance and ruffling the man's hair. "Of course, the Injustice League and I are very merciful people." The Joker laughed as if he had said the funniest joke ever. "Maybe Mr. President will survive into the New Year if our demands are met."

"Please tell us your diabolic plans, it really strikes fear in everyone's hearts when we know what you're up to." A voice said from the shadows and behind the camera. Clearly, a henchman had the camera because the video swung to the shadows. "And really? The _Injustice League_? Couldn't come up anything more original?"

A figure dropped from the rafters, landed gracefully on their feet and faced the villains with a smirk spreading across their lips. Although their features were concealed by a red domino mask, it was clear that the newcomer was a teenage girl no older than fifteen. She was lean and had a fit build, her skin was tan, olive-colored almost; clearly mixed heritage of some sort.

She wore a red and black kimono that had rips at the shoulder of her elbow length sleeves and the length of the kimono reached to just above her knees. The outfit was tied at the waist with leather bindings. She wore Kevlar enforced leggings under her kimono and there was a silver cylinder strapped to her right thigh; on her left thigh was a tan leather pouch. On her left arm was a glove that reached up to her elbow and had a holo-computer connected to it, a red ribbon was wrapped around her right wrist. A thin katana was strapped to her back and she wore dark combat boots. Finally, her hair was braided over her should with red ribbon.

"Oh! A new hero to play with!" Joker laughed, moving away from the president.

"Not really." The girl said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I was just passing by when I heard the commotion."

"Well, Uncle J must give new heroes a welcoming gift, especially the little ones." Without any more warning, Joker threw a yellow, smiley face grenade to the girl. To her credit, her eyes only widened slightly before she tossed the weapon back. The members of the Injustice League backed away from the Joker who just laughed.

"No thanks. I couldn't."

"I insist." Joker tossed the grenade back.

"I really couldn't." The young girl hurried to throw back the grenade once more. "I have nothing to give you if return."

"It is fine. Uncle J does this for all his new kiddies."

This time, as the grenade was in the air in front of the masked vigilante, it exploded, spreading smoke all around the girl. The Joker laughed manically, and the Justice League and the Young Justice watched the video in complete shock and despair. A young girl lost to the word because she was copying the things that they had started.

"Well, wasn't that present just the _bomb_!?"

Red throwing star soared out of the smoke that had begun to clear. One landed by Joker's feet, causing him to jump and fall back, and the other got stuck in a green wire hanging from the bomb at the President's feet. The bomb seemed to silence whatever ticking it might have had, which was only evident by the President relaxing slightly.

"Yeah… It was a real _blast_."

The girl flew out of the smoke next, feet first, and rammed into Black Adam, who actually fell backwards as if this girl's strength could match even a quarter of his. And the girl didn't even stop long enough for Poison Ivy's vines to have any impact against her. She pulled her Katana from its sheath at her back and sliced the incoming vines in half. They laid limply on the ground and Poison Ivy gasped crying out for her "babies".

The girl then used a throwing star to knock Count Vertigo's "vertigo effect" headgear from his head before he could use it against her. She then flipped back next to the President's chair and crouched beside him. She messed with something on her wrist computer and then electricity flowed from little glowing red machines on the ground that no one had really noticed besides Batman and Nightwing when the girl had thrown them with the first two throwing stars. Electricity rolled up the villains' bodies and they fell to the ground limp, the camera falling to the ground too indicting that the henchman was also taken out.

The President sighed against his bindings and the girl then helped undo them. There were sirens rolling in from a distance that the camera had just begun picking up. When the President was free, he began thanking his savior profusely, but she had moved on to begin restraining all the villains.

"You should be fine now, Mr. President." The camera was still able to pick up everything that was happening even as it lay abandon on its side. "I called the cops before I burst in and it sounds like they will be here shortly. I suggest you go outside though; I don't know whether or not there are any more bombs in the building; I didn't have the time to check."

"Who are you?" The President couldn't help but ask, and everyone watching this broadcast were also wondering the same thing.

"Here?" The girl began, disappearing into the shadows. When she spoke once more, she said, "Just call me Nox."

* * *

Nightwing, Robin II, Artemis, Kaldur, M'gann, Wally, Conner

Gotham, A Local Diner

January 02, 2013 15:30 EDT

* * *

For the second day in a row, the Galaxy Broadcasting System ran the video of the young hero, Nox, saving the president. Even though the two Bat Boys had seen the video multiple times with their mentor, they could not pinpoint who exactly this Nox was and they had seen her a couple times over the last two days. If she wasn't taking out villains at the pier, she was stealing things from those villains. No one on the Team could catch her, and the Justice League was growing wary with all the media attention.

Now here the original members of the Team, plus the new Robin, sat in civilian clothes in a local diner in Gotham, watching the news and Iris West as she spoke about the video. The President wanted to personally thank the girl for saving his life, but the girl had not replied to his invitation nor the invitation that the Justice League had offered up.

"Who does this girl think she is?" Robin II growled, clearly glaring from behind his shades. "You can't just show up, take out some big-name villains, and just disappear. People are going to want to know as much as they can about you."

Nightwing laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Calm down, Little Wing. Not everyone wants to be front and center. Also, remember why we are here."

"Yes, my friend." Kaldur said quietly as he looked over the menu belong to the diner. "We must remember we are here to follow up on an anonymous tip. We cannot lose our heads."

Robin just grumbled. Then the door opened behind their booth, letting in the cold Gotham winter air. A girl with long dark hair, wearing jeans and a blue flannel walked in. A black bookbag hung from one of her shoulders. She looked around the diner quickly before her eyes settled on the older woman behind the counter, the one that told the Team she'd be back to take their order once she finished up the coffee.

"Fellyra!" The older woman cried happily, and an older man peeked out from the kitchen with a grin. "Thank God you're here. I thought, maybe, with all this snow we just got that you'd be late after classes."

"Nope." The girl laughed. "Made it just on time and the snow was no problem at all."

As the girl moved closer to the older woman, the older woman gasped. She hurried around the counter and let her fingers linger on Fellyra's jaw. The Team snuck a peek to see what was going on and saw that the girl had a large bruise on her jaw, one that she tried to hide, so it seems.

"What happened?" The older woman asked.

"I fell." The girl said, using one of the oldest excuses in the book.

"Fell? Are you sure?"

"Yes…" The girl looked around the room once more to see how many people were in the diner, but only found the Team since the diner had yet to get their rush for the day. "Can we not talk about this right now?"

"Why not now? Will you tell me that you didn't fall later?"

"No." The girl rubbed the bruise on her jaw. "Because I fell."

The older woman put her hand on her hips, giving the girl a disappointed look. "Those people are supposed to be taking care of you, not hurting you. The city gives them money to make sure your safe and healthy, not for them to shove up their nose."

The girl raised an eyebrow at the short rant she just got, before saying, "I really don't know what your talking about." The girl moved around the counter and dropped her bag behind it before grabbing an apron to wrap around her waist.

"Fellyra!" The older lady groaned. "They are your foster parents and they signed up to take care of children. Yet, every time you come in here you have some kind of bruise or look like you haven't eaten in days. It is not healthy to keep living with these people."

Fellyra just rolled her eyes. "Better than Juvie. There's not a lot of places in Gotham that can take in someone like me." The dark-haired girl moved around the counter and rested a hand on the older woman's shoulder, who in turn allowed her shoulders slump. Fellyra just smiled, one that didn't quite reach her golden-green eyes. "Don't worry about it. I just fell."

Fellyra moved around the older woman and walked up to the Team's table. "Sorry 'bout the wait. My name is Fellyra and I'll take your orders if your ready. Better yet, I can take your drink orders first."

The Team's eyes focused in on the bruise on the girl's jaw. It was very pronounced now that they could see it better. Artemis could empathize with the girl and Robin could spot someone trying to hide abusive parents from anywhere. His mother hadn't been a particularly abusive woman, but the men she brought home could be brutes. The waitress, Fellyra, reminded him of himself when he had bothered his mother and whatever man came home with her. And he had lied too, if it meant protecting his mother and staying with her.

"I'll just take a water, if you could." Robin's brother's voice broke him out of his thoughts. He looked to Nightwing who was grinning at the girl, but he was clearly trying to get everyone to stop staring at the girl. Robin looked back to the girl who was rubbing subconsciously at her bruise. Everyone else agreed to have water too but Robin frown looking down at his menu once more.

"What's the best milkshake here? You've got a lot here." Robin asked and the girl smiled softly.

"Our best seller is the cookies and cream one. But the Ol' Man has been trying out this new one. It's coffee and mocha chip. It's really good."

"Can I get that?"

"Sure, coming right up." Fellyra walked away to put their orders in and the Team gave the new Robin a look.

"What? I wanted a milkshake. You guys made it a little too obvious you were staring at her bruise and that you were trying to change the subject by just ordering water." Robin chuckled. Everyone snuck a peek at the girl once more, who was grabbing their water and preparing Robin's shake. She wasn't too small of a thing, a bit taller than Robin II, but it was clear that she wasn't fed well. It wasn't that she was skinny per se; she was fit but her eyes were dark with malnourishment and lack of sleep. Her olive skin tone was ashen.

Fellyra came to the table with the waters and the milkshake; she placed it down in front of them and smiled. "Ready to order? Or do you need more time?"

"Can we get more time?" Nightwing asked for the group. And Fellyra shrugged and made to move away. Artemis stopped her though with a wave of her hand.

"May I ask you something, since you work here, and you probably see a lot?" Fellyra just shrugged before nodding, waving her hand to gesture for Artemis to continue. Artemis looked at her friends before continuing, "We've heard that there are some weird things going on in the area. We have yet to see anything that—validates the rumor."

"This is Gotham." The girl chuckled. "Everything is weird, all together backwards, here. I'm not sure what you are trying to ask."

"Well weirder."

"Weirder than that new hero showing their face around here." She pointed at the TV running another news special on the vigilante calling themself "Nox".

"Yes. Weirder."

Fellyra thought for a moment and then looked out into the snowstorm raging just beyond the window. Her eyes narrowed before she turned back to the group. "The weather has been a bit abnormal, but it is winter, so rain and snow is to be expected. Ummm, other than that, a lot of the lowly criminals have been getting a little braver with a bit more crimes than usual."

"Do you know why?" Kaldur asked.

Fellyra raised an eyebrow. "No. But I can suspect that they have something planned. Probably nothing good is happening if criminals in Gotham are gathering and working together." She paused and then looked back at the older woman and the man in the kitchen, she subconsciously rubbed at her jaw again. "Actually, I didn't tell you this—and if you tell the cops, I'll deny it—but my foster father is a part of this group that is more or less doing criminal stuff, and he's been coming home lately and weird hours. I heard him and my foster mother talking about some escape plan involving Arkam and Belle Reve. When they found out that I had overheard them, they weren't quite happy about it."

M'gann gasped. "Did they hit you because you overheard their conversation?"

Fellyra glared before looking out the window over their shoulders. "Foster Care isn't all sunshine and rainbows. You learn to deal with what they give you; not everyone can be so lucky as to have the billionaire, Bruce Wayne, take them in. The system has no money and there are a lot of kids that get stuck in shitty situations, some worse than mine." The waitress looked back at the group, her eyes lingering on Nightwing and Robin for a split second. "I don't know if my foster parents are involved with the prison break, but rumors are trickle down in this community and its worth looking into."

"Are you suggesting that if we relay this information to anyone, that we leave your foster parents out of it?" Robin asked. He could understand why she didn't want her foster parents involved; they would get arrested and Fellyra would be left alone. It wasn't about love for the people taking care of her, it was about survival. But if this prison break was true and it was stopped, her foster parents could possibly kill her.

"They are despicable humans, but they are the only thing keeping me out of juvie; which is the only place that apparently has room for someone like me." The girl raised an eyebrow and cocked her head slightly. "My social worker's words, not mine."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"_Basically, the key rule is, if you want to appear sane on Earth, you have to be in the right place, wearing the right clothes, saying the right things, and only stepping on the right kind of grass."_

\- Matt Haig

* * *

Fellyra "Outis"

Crime Alley, Gotham

January 13, 2013 12:05 EDT

* * *

It had been over a week since Fellyra met the Team in the diner she worked at and two days since the Justice League stopped the prison breaks that were occurring concurrently at Arkam and Belle Reve. And now here she stood outside with the cops as they escorted her foster parents out of their apartment. She crossed her arms to ward off the chill that the afternoon sun couldn't chase away and watched everything that played out before her. Commissioner Gordon, as he introduced himself, stood with Fellyra's social worker, probably arguing over what would be done about her now that she didn't have a home or adults to take care of her.

_I could run._ Fellyra thought as she looked over her shoulder at the crowd that had gathered to see what was going on. _Then I wouldn't have to be worried about where I would be sleeping tonight. _

But then what? Drop out of school? Give up everything she worked for? The same thing that would happen when the social worker takes her to Juvie.

"Enough!" Commissioner Gordon exclaimed. His face was a bit flushed with anger, but it seemed like he was trying to keep a leveled head. "There has to be a better place than Juvie. There are no halfway homes that could take her for the time being?"

Fellyra's social worker sighed and then shrugged. "I'm sure I could find one, but there is no one to watch now. Schools are out for the day, so it is best to put her somewhere where she can be watched and get proper medical attention."

Both adults looked at the girl, taking in her split lip and the cut at her hairline. There were more wounds though, those they couldn't see, like the bruised ribs and the cuts on her arms and back. They'd probably scar but it would just be another batch to add to her collection. She's needed to have a checkup to make sure none of these wounds would cause any problems later.

"I'll watch over her today and bring her to the doctors. I hope by the end of the night, you'll find somewhere nice for the girl to stay." Commissioner Gordon said before walking over to the young girl in question. The social worker rolled her eyes before leaving herself. Commissioner Gordon offered Fellyra's his hand. "I'm James Gordon."

"Fellyra Outis." The girl shook the man's hand but keep one arm wrapped around her ribs.

"I'll take be taking you to the hospital soon, but I just need to stop somewhere first."

* * *

The Bat family

Gotham, Wayne Manor

January 13, 2013 12:30 EDT

* * *

"My dad is here!" Barbara Gordon exclaimed, running down the stairs as both Dick Grayson and Jason Todd slid down the banister. Timothy Drake and Damien Wayne were already downstairs with Alfred, studying even though snow had cancelled the school day. Bruce Wayne opened the manor's doors just as Commissioner Gordon was coming up the stairs and Barbara rushed by to throw herself into her father's arms.

"I thought today was going to be a long day," Barbara said. "That a lot of the Gotham PD was needed to arrest the people that were a part of the prison break conspiracy. People were saying it was going to be dangerous."

Commissioner Gordon chuckled and returned his daughter's hug. "It was fine when I left. I had something to take care of, so I was allowed to leave early." When he released his daughter, he turned to Fellyra who stood at the bottom step, her brows knitted together in pain. She slowly made her way up the stairs, one arm cradling her ribs once more.

"Ah!" Barbara looked the girl over, taking in the cuts and bruises on her face. "You're the girl that gave the tip on the breakout."

Fellyra glared but didn't say anything.

"Fellyra's social worker is looking for a place to put her until she can find a _good _foster home, so I offered to take her to the hospital and watch her until then." Commissioner Gordon told his daughter who nodded and looked at the other girl with pity.

"Don't look at me like that." Fellyra growled out and Barbara's look of pity turned into shock. "I don't need anyone's pity. It's my fault that I'm like this; I should have known that if word get out that I was the one that mentioned the breakout, then _my foster parents_ wouldn't be too please." Venom surrounded the words "foster parents" and if it was anything to go off of, it showed Fellyra's displeasure for the people she got stuck with.

Commissioner Gordon laid a comforting hand on Fellyra's shoulder which she flinched away from. "It is not your fault. They chose to be foster parents, and thus they should have given up their criminal ways to take care of you. Hurting you should have never crossed their mind."

Fellyra scoffed. "You offer money to crooks and all they have to do is home a child, what do you think they're going to do? It's like holding a piece of meat in front of a starving dog." She groaned and clutched her ribs tighter when a flare of pain ripple through them.

Alfred pushed his way to the door and gently grabbed Fellyra's arm and led her to a chair in the foyer. She didn't flinch away from him like she had Gordon, instead his presence seemed to calm her. "The young girl is hurt; I don't think standing in the doorway is healthy." Alfred turned to the girl in question and smiled. "I'll retrieve an ice pack for your ribs and some medicine. It should help with the pain until you are able to get to the hospital."

"A better option would be calling Leslie," Jason Todd suggested as Alfred went towards the kitchen. "She's closer than any hospital and better at her job. She could be here in the matter of minutes."

"Good suggestion, Little Wing." Dick Grayson complimented with a slap on the boy's back, who skewered the older boy with a glare. "Did you hear that Alfie?"

"I'm calling her as we speak." The butler said.

"I really shouldn't intrude and use your family doctor." Commissioner Gordon said and Barbara giggled quietly. "I was just going to take her to one of my doctors."

"It's fine, James." Bruce chuckled, and looked over at the girl as Alfred gave her a bag of ice which she placed on her ribs, and then a glass of water and the medicine which she downed. "Jason is right—"

"For once." Damien Wayne added.

"And Leslie will be here a lot quicker, compared to you driving her to some doctor's office." Bruce continued, ignoring his son interruption and then his and Jason's scrabbling. "Plus, Leslie is the best doctor in Gotham."

Fellyra tried to hide her smirk at the brothers and James Gordon getting nervous over using the Wayne's hospitality, which the boys caught then smirked at her. She glared back at them before turning her head away. She couldn't help but feel safe in the Wayne house, it had been a long time since she saw any type of familial bickering; and although the Wayne boys acted like they hated one another, there was no denying that they would do anything for each other. It's been a long time since Fellyra had experienced a closeness to someone like that. Loyalty, at that.

The doctor that everyone talked about arrived moments later and rushed right up to Fellyra.

"Hello, my name is Dr. Leslie Thompkins and you must be my patient at this moment." The doctor offered her hand and Fellyra shook it slowly, wrapping her other arm around her ribs to hold the ice up.

"Fellyra Outis." She said.

"And what happened, if you don't mind me asking."

"A lot," Fellyra said, simply.

"I can see that. But can you tell me exactly what, so I'll be able to help you."

Fellyra bit her lip and her eyes flickered to the men watching from behind Dr. Thompkins. The doctor followed the girl's line of sight and sighed. "Are any of you Miss Outis's guardian?"

"I'm a temporary one for the day until her social worker finds a home for her." Commissioner Gordon stepped forward with furrowed brows. Dr. Thompkins shook her head and looked back at Fellyra with a smile.

"I need everyone to leave the room then. Only family or guardians while I'm with a patient." Dr. Thompkins ordered and the men and Barbara backed up towards the kitchen, before disappearing. "Now, can you tell me what happened?"

Fellyra sighed. "My foster mother and father beat me for the last three days. They were angry for me telling."

"What did they do exactly?"

"Kicked me, whipped me, didn't feed me… you get the idea."

"Where does it hurt, Miss Outis?"

"Fellyra."

"Excuse me?" Dr. Thompkins looked at the girl confused.

"Just call me Fellyra… please."

Dr. Thompkins nodded and then asked her question once more. Fellyra pointed at her head and then her stomach/rib area. The doctor gestured to ask permission to help Fellyra pull off her sweatshirt so that she can look at her injuries. Fellyra allowed it and Dr. Thompkins found that the girl was just wearing a plain white tank top under her sweatshirt. The doctors eye looked over the scars scattered on the girl's bare shoulders and then her eye automatically lit on the black zig-zagged mark that wrapped around her right bicep. It looked like a tattoo and the girl was definitely not old enough to walk into a tattoo parlor and get her own.

"Are you wearing a sports bra under this? I want to see your ribs."

Fellyra nodded and shrugged out her undershirt and Dr. Thompkins was barely able to hold in a gasp when she saw the condition the girl was in. She was used to seeing Bruce and Richard littered with scars, but to find a civilian like this too, came as a complete shock. Although the bruise on the girl's ribs was the most predominate, scars were all over the front of the girl; the worst being a large scar on the center of her chest that if there was an exit scar on her back, as Leslie suspected, the girl shouldn't even be alive.

"How long were you with your foster parents?" Dr. Thompkins asked.

"A few months." Fellyra answered nonchalantly.

"A few months?"

The girl nodded and Dr. Thompkins checked the girls back too and found multiple bruises around her ribs and as expected, the scar on Fellyra's chest did have an exit wound on her back. There was a branded "13" on her lower back, left side, and a symbol that looked like an Arabic symbol, but Leslie couldn't be too sure, on her neck, just below the collar of a shirt. Another tattoo, this one fade considerably though. She also had track marks from what looked like a whip. There were fresh marks from a whip too. She asked if she could feel around her ribs and Fellyra gave her an affirmative, and Dr. Thompkins gently touched her ribs and Fellyra only flinched slightly, but other than that she seemed fine.

"I don't think anything is broken. But your ribs are definitely bruised."

Fellyra nodded. "I thought as much. It hurts, but it's not unbearable."

"I'm going to prescribe you some pain medicine to help with the pain." Leslie smiled.

"I don't have insurance to pay for that, and I only work at a café. I'll just take something over the counter." Fellyra grumbled and pulled on her tank top and then her sweatshirt, she seemed to struggle a bit, so Leslie helped her.

"It will be fine, Fellyra." Leslie winked at Fellyra before turning to the kitchen. "I'm sure Bruce will spot you on the bill. You guys can come in now."

Commissioner Gordon rushed over to Fellyra and looked her over before turning to Leslie Thompkins for a report. "Is everything ok? Should I bring her to the hospital?"

"She'll be fine." Leslies smiled and patted Commissioner Gordon on the shoulder. "Nothing's broken and her cuts don't look like they need stiches. Her ribs are bruised, and she'll be in a bit of pain for a bit, so here is a prescription for some pain medicine."

"I can't pay for it." Fellyra muttered, crossing her arms over her chest, glaring at the doctor.

Commissioner Gordon looked sadly at the girl. "I'll find a way to get it paid for."

Fellyra's eyebrows frowned. She hated hand outs and she knew she wouldn't need the pills anyways, so it wasn't worth anyone paying for. "I don't need them."

"You do, unless you want to be in pain." Dr. Thompkins said, and then seemed to regret it when Fellyra gave her an 'are you kidding me' look. Her whole life was full of pain, and she was sure Dr. Thompkins could at the very least infer it from what she had seen. So, in the end, Dr. Thompkins deserved the look just like Fellyra deserved the sigh she received in reply. "Fine. Doctor's order then."

Fellyra rolled her eyes but said and did nothing more.

"I'll walk you out," Bruce offered, and Dr. Thompkins smiled gratefully. When the two were out of ear shot and outside, Leslie to turned to Bruce suddenly.

"Is she in the same line of work as you? Is that why you called me here?"

"What? No, James brought her here and said he was going to bring her to the hospital, but he had to pick up Barbara first." Bruce looked a bit taken aback but he quickly hid it. "Why?"

Leslie bit her lip and then looked back at the door of Wayne manor. She couldn't go around talking about her patient's injuries but seeing as this wasn't her real patient and Fellyra was a minor who had been clearly abused, who better to tell than Gotham's Dark Knight. "A good portion of her upper body is covered in scars. Some are like lash marks and others are like cuts."

"James said that her foster parents were abusive." Bruce couldn't see how Dr. Thompkins correlated these scars with what he and Dick did.

"They were, Fellyra admitted as much. But."

"But?"

"But she told me she was only with these people for a few months and yet those scars I saw on her were older, years older." Leslie told him; her eyebrows knitted together. "And then I saw this mark on her arm, a tattoo, that zigged zagged around her bicep. How does a 15-year-old get a tattoo? Why would she want to, unless it's some kind of marking? And then she had a branding and another tattoo which looked aged."

"Do you think that she's been tortured?"

"I'm too afraid to follow that train of thought." Leslie's eyes welled with tears. She felt sorry for the girl. How much pain did she go through? "How can a social worker, someone who promises to protect children and make sure they're in safe homes, keep putting the girl in situations like this?"

"James thinks that the woman has… less than ideal beliefs." Bruce said, remembering the process of adopting Dick, that woman too was a handful, to say the least.

"Who is her social worker?"

"Michelle Willis."

"Are you kidding?" Leslie gasped. "Bruce, that girl is never going to get a good home."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"_If you want to say something and have people listen then you have to wear a mask. If you want to be honest then you have to live a lie."_

\- Banksy

* * *

Young Justice and Nox

The Pier, Gotham City

January 16, 2013 23:00 EDT

* * *

The men walking the docks shivered; whether it was from anticipation and fear or from the chill rolling in with the shadows from the bay, was questionable. At any moment they were expecting a dark figure to leap from the building and end their operation in a flurry of blood and pain. A part of them was always prepared for Gotham's Dark Knight to swoop in and turn them into the cops; the other part of them knew that this ship was so top secret that even the Greatest Detective would be too late, and the shipment would be long gone. Deathstroke22 the Terminator himself helped to conceal this operation. So, there was nothing for them to worry about. Yet, they soon found that their fear was warranted, but not for their original reason.

A yellow blur flew pass them, ripping the semi-automatics from their hands and a green arrow released a net that encompassed them, pinning them to the deck. The yellow blur stopped in front of them with a large smirk on his face.

"That was a cakewalk." The teen joked, placing his hands on his hips and turning to look behind him. "I didn't think Gotham's villains would be that easy, Nightwing. At least, Captain Cold would have heard me coming and tried to freeze me."

The former Boy Wonder strolled up next to his fellow hero, pulling up a map on his holocomputer. He typed quickly and nodded to the Atlantean who joined them with the rest of the Young Justice team. "The shipment isn't even here yet, KF. Lookouts in Gotham are usually hired from outside sources. Plus, Gotham villains don't deal with superpowered heroes on a daily basis. I'm actually shocked that Bats let you guys come here."

"Excuses." Kid Flash laughed as he helped Aqualad and Superboy move the hired lookouts into an empty storage unit, that was left wide open. They hid the men behind some boxes and totes in the storage units before locking it up. The group then hid themselves in between blueish gray storage units, waiting for their target. "How much longer anyways?"

"It's coming." Nightwing grunted and pointed to a ship making its way through the bay. It had been awhile since Nightwing had worked with his old team, and he forgot how much talking the Team tended to do. With the Teen Titans, he gave orders and there was nothing said, and that team jumped straight into action. It was business as usual with the Teen Titans. The Young Justice team was different, they all knew each other for so long that they were on a level playing field. There wasn't one leader giving all the orders, or one person coming up with the contingency plans. It just felt easier to joke around at times, and maybe that's because they were still working under the adults.

When the ship docked, men began unloading a pallet of boxes. Sportsmaster followed behind them with a group of men who were clearly League of Shadows members. They fanned out along the dock, watching every entrance. No one was getting on or off that ship, and nowhere near that shipment.

_Great._ Artemis muttered in the telepathic link. _How are we going to get to the ship?_

_ We'll have to figure it out. But at least we know who we are up against._ Aqualad observed.

"What happened to your lookouts, Bane?" Sportsmaster called. "Are they really that incompetent?"

"Well amigo," The Team jumped into fighting stances at the voice that had snuck up behind them. Nightwing was a little angry at himself for being so distracted that someone like Bane snuck up on him. "It seems that these ninos and ninas wandered into a place they don't belong and got involved in a bad situation.

The Team was forced from their hiding place, and they stood back to back in order to face all the villains surrounding them. There couldn't be any blind spots.

"What a surprise." Sportsmaster chuckled, sarcastically. "The Justice League really shouldn't send children to do a man's job. Hate to tell you brats but your outnumbered and outgunned."

"Can I crash this party?" Everyone's heads snapped up to the new voice. On top of the bluish gray storage unit, Nox lounged with one leg hanging off the edge of the unit. No had noticed she was up there until that very moment and no one heard her alive. Kid Flash had to give her credit; she was as silent as every member of the Bat Family. Her stealth was on pointe.

"Ah! So, you are the girl that everybody is raving about." Sportsmaster raised his gun and Nox stood with a smirk gracing her lips. The bullet ricocheted off the metal of the unit as the girl flipped through the air. She landed on the pallet behind the villain and the men that had been unloading the ship, backed away and raised their guns at the girl.

"It's always a pleasure to meet a fan." Nox gave a overdramatic bow, before she reached down and grabbed a vial of greenish-blue liquid from a box below her feet. "If you don't mind, I would like one of these."

"We do." Bane growled; Venom began pumping through his veins. He charged at the girl, who jumped back using the pallet as a vault. Bane rammed right into the pallet, almost knocking it into the bay.

"Watch it, Idiot!" Sportsmaster commanded and growled back at him. Nox just laughed as she tucked the vial into the leather pouch at her thigh. She quickly dodged another attack from Bane.

"Is that all you got?" She challenged. "I know a seven-year-old that packs a better punch than you."

Bane yelled and started throwing rapid fire punches, that the girl dodged easily.

"You couldn't hit the broad end of a barn!" Nox flipped backwards, doing handsprings until she landed softly next to Superboy. She smirked at the Team before turning the villains. "I was only after this vial to begin with. So, although this has been fun, I must bid you adieu."

_Wait! _Nox turned to glare at the Martian that had brushed against her mind with the telepathic link. Miss Martian at least had the decency to look remorseful for intruding on the girl's mind. _Please lend us a hand. These people kidnapped someone that we were sent to save._

Nox just gave the woman a blank look. _And? I came here for the shipment. I'm sure whatever hero got kidnapped can help themselves. _

_ It's a child. _Kid Flash said. _Bruce Wayne's youngest son, Damian. He's only seven._

The vigilante seemed to think for a moment before she muttered, "Umbra." A shadow raised from the ground between Superboy and Nox. It was just dark and sinister, its ruby red eyes the only feature that was distinguishable. "Ite puer ad recuperare. Ut vadam Damian Wayne!"

The shadow looked to the ship before it disappeared. Nox looked at the Team and nodded. "Hope you're ready for a fight."

"Now what was that, Nina?" Bane growled.

"Your worst nightmare." Nox growled. "Don't know why you guys felt the need to kidnap a kid, and I really don't care. But you're going to wish that this shipment and the kidnapping didn't happen on the same day."

After the last word had left Nox's lips, everyone jumped into action. Superboy went after Bane, knowing that only he could match him strength for strength, and the rest of the Team went after the League of Shadows assassins. Nox shot straight for Sportsmaster, dodging a bullet with her katana. When Sportsmaster knew that his guns would be useless against a vigilante who could somehow dodge a bullet at close range, he met her in hand to hand combat. The girl was a lot stronger than he would have gave her credit for, it was suspicious and Sportsmaster was starting to wonder if she was even human. That, and she had training that reminded him of Ra's Al Ghul. She was fast and swift; each punch and each kick meaning something and had some bigger plan.

And then suddenly she stopped and flipped away from him, just as a bullet and red electricity soared through the empty air where she once was. Sportsmaster turned to find Deathstroke standing at the front of the ship with a sniper in his hand and Klarion the Witch Boy right behind him with his cat sitting on his shoulder.

Klarion smirked as he raised his hands. The girl's eyes narrowed, and she made a sort of "come here" with her hands. Then some force seemed to pull the Team behind her, and she clapped her hands together, a wall of fire growing between her and Klarion's onslaught of magic.

"Don't hurt your comrades, Kiddie!" Klarion laughed and Nox looked behind her to find both Aqualad and Miss Martian growing weak from her defense. The fire wall suddenly dropped and Klarion's magic hit her in the chest; she knocked into Superboy with a grunt. "So, you must be the one I felt the bizarre magic from."

Sportsmaster and Deathstroke both raised their guns at the Team as Nox tried to regain her footing with Superboy's help. When everyone saw the guns pointed at them and the villain's fingers on the trigger, Superboy tried to put himself between the bullet and his friends. Nox was barely able to get to her feet, let alone doge a bullet like she already had, but she tried her best to place her body in front of the recovering Aqualad and Miss Martian.

Suddenly a dark blur came from the sky with a contrasting white one. "Don't hurt my sister!" A childish voice screamed as both blurs knocked into Sportsmaster, dislodging his gun and distracting Deathstroke long enough for Nightwing the throw a birdarang into the barrel of the sniper.

The newcomer jumped back and held himself between the Team and the villains. The Team was shocked to see that it was a boy of about seven that had jumped into the fray. He wore blue jeans and an undistinguishable black hoodie. He wore a red mask like Nox's, and his hair was slicked back. Beside him stood… a dog? A white Labrador to be exact.

Nox's eyes narrowed as she was able to recover. "Jo—"

"No civilian names in the field!" The boy commanded turning on the vigilante, who just gave him a tired look. The dog beside him barked and that's when everyone realized that the dog was also wearing a red mask.

"Whatever." The girl grumbled and walked up to stand beside the boy. She grabbed two throwing stars from her leather pouch and glared. "Just stay behind me."

The boy grinned and got into a fighting stance.

"Oh! And don't think you're not in trouble." Nox added for which the boy smiled.

"But I had impeccable timing. _Super _even."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"_You are not just anyone. One day, you're going to have to make a choice. You have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be. Whoever that man is, good character or bad, it's going to change the world"_

\- Jonathan Kent

* * *

The Team and Nox

The Pier, Gotham City

January 16, 2013 23:30 EDT

* * *

Nox stood slightly in front of the boy and she faced the villains with nothing but throwing stars in her hand. In reality, had it just been her at the pier when the boy showed up, she would have been screwed, majorly. There was no possible way that she could take on Sportsmaster and Bane _along with _Klarion and Deathstroke, while protecting the boy. She was good but not that good.

"By the way," Nox grunted, watching the boy and his dog from the corner of her eye. "Why is the dog wearing a mask?"

"To hide his identity, of course." The boy chuckled.

"That doesn't do much if he decides to chase his tail." The girl gave her younger charge a pointed look.

"Don't worry!" The boy laughed. "I took his collar off."

Nox sighed.

"Are we going to stand hear chitchatting or are you brats going to fight." Bane growled and Nox just smirked, dropping back into her joking persona.

"Definitely fight." Nox threw her throwing stars at Deathstroke, who moved back to avoid them, and then Nox waved her hand at the dog and pointed at Bane. "Get him, boy!"

The white Labrador shoo forward, becoming a near blur. Suddenly he was in front of Bane and in the air, using his hind legs to kick off Bane. The large man went soaring over the dock and into the water. The dog barked and sat where Bane once stood, his tail wagging. The Team just stared at the animal in shock.

_How… _Miss Martian started to say in the mindlink but was interrupted when Nox told the dog to "tone it down."

"Ignis Infernalis!" Nox commanded, her palms pointed out towards the shipment she had stolen from. The boxes in question were engulfed into blue and purple flames. The girl then jumped forward, grabbing the dog by the scruff of his neck, and then proceeded to grab the boy, who was all but snarling at Sportsmaster from a distance. She ran over to the Team, just as the shadow creature—thing—returned to her side, but this time with a squirming child in its arms. It dropped the younger Wayne child unceremoniously and then turned to Nox, awaiting any further instruction. Which it got when Nox pointed at Deathstroke and Klarion, yelling: "Impetus!"

The red eyed shadow shot forward and attacked. Nox took the villains' momentary distraction to whisper a spell and then her, the children, and the Team were no longer on the pier but in some alley in Gotham. The vigilante dropped to the ground, holding her ribs and the boy and dog ran up to check on her.

"Damian Wayne!" Nightwing ran up to the boy who was dusting himself. The former Boy Wonder looked over the young boy before giving him a look. In return, Damian just rolled his eyes.

"Great! Got the kid and no harm done." Kid Flash cheered.

Damian glared. "Who got the kid? You? Last time I checked, a creepy shadow thing just grabbed me and brought me along with it, kicking and screaming."

Nox chuckled and everyone turned to the girl who was kneeling on the ground, holding her ribs, and a shade or two paler. "Sorry 'bout that. He's not much of a talker." She sucked in a breath as she stumbled over her words.

"Nox? Are you okay?" The boy leaned over the girl; his brows knitted together in worry. Realization seemed to dawn on him. "Jay said you were hurt, but I thought that maybe you healed it since I didn't see anything. Did you only heal your external wounds and not your internal wounds?"

Nox shook her head with a smirk. "I don't know what you're talking about."

If Nox could get any paler than her tan skin already allowed, it just did. Sweat began to bead at her hair line and she looked horrible. Yet, she tried to push herself to her feet which seemed to cause her more pain. She coughed and blood splattered against the plaintiff.

"Nox!" The boy screamed.

The world went dark around her and the last thing she heard was the boy yelling for help and the dog barking.

* * *

Justice League and the Team

The Watchtower

January 17, 2013 12:00 EDT

* * *

The first thing Nox became aware of was something blowing air into her nose, the second thing was something beeping steadily by her head, and lastly was that there was something stuck in her hand. Although she was always so levelheaded, anxiety began to set in which was evident by the beeping beside her. She opened her eyes and regretted it immediately. Her fist clenched at the sheets under her as she took in the cold steel machines around her and the standard, clean white walls around her. These sights alone had her thrown into a flashback.

She yanked the tubes away from her face, pulled the stickies from her chest and back, and tipped out the IV that was in her hand. The machine's beeping flat lined, which caused someone to enter the room. From the corner of her eye, she saw someone rushing over to her, so she fell back off the bed before scrambling to her feet and backed herself into a wall.

"Wait." The figure came closer to her and Nox tensed, needles and white lab coats flashing before her eyes. She couldn't think of anything but pain and fear.

"Stay away!" Nox screamed and a wall of fire burst between her and whoever the figure was. Sweat beaded at her forehead and she began to hyperventilate. Her heart crashed against her chest and her body shook. She felt a calming presence brush against her mind and she instinctively lashed out at the invasion; dragging whoever had dared to enter into her mind into the cruelest memories that would cause the most pain.

First, the memory revealed a little girl with golden-blue eyes laying strapped to a metal table, some kind of machine sending volts of electricity through the girl who screamed and screamed and screamed. Then, that same girl but slightly younger by a year or two, was being held under water as she thrashed and screamed. Then there was nothing at all before there was a flash of steel and screaming pain burning at the center of the person in the memory's chest. Nox was barely able to hold back her own scream as she bit her lip. She dropped to her hands and knees, arms shaking under her.

The fire died down around her when she was able to come to her senses just a little bit.

"It's in the past." She muttered, her voice sounding rough to her own ears. "It's just a memory. You're not there. You're not there."

"Nox!" Someone screamed and then tiny arms wrapped around her shoulders, causing her to sit up and catch the little body that crashed against her. The arms wrapped tightly around her, squeezing her like he was trying to keep her anchored to the ground. "Remember where you are. You're not there, you're here… with me."

Nox wasn't sure what finally made here realize her surroundings, to be able to see the heroes standing around her. The warm, comforting arms hugging her with every bit of being within the tiny child, or the familiar force that grounded her since the day she met him?

She finally looked down to see who was hugging her and noticed an all too familiar head of shaggy black hair and a white dog standing beside her, his tongue hanging out. She blinked, trying to figure out if this was really real. "J—Jon?" She asked.

The boy chuckled and looked up at her, wearing his red domino mask. "You must be really out of it if your saying my name in uniform."

Nox blinked her eyes slowly again and her brows knitted in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

Jon frowned. "Do you not remember yesterday? I showed up yesterday."

It was clear when Nox was thinking clearly again and did, in fact, remember about her mission yesterday. Her hands flew up to her eyes to feel for her mask, which she was relieved to feel, but she wasn't wearing her uniform. Instead, she was wearing what felt like scrubs and definitely looked like one. She then registered that her ribs no longer hurt and then was barely able to withhold a sigh before turning to look down at the boy. The whites of her mask narrowed.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't be yelling at you right now."

Jon laughed. "Because if you start then you might yell my whole name at some point, and then our secret identities are definitely revealed."

With one look, Jon knew that Nox was rolling her eyes under her mask. Although she wouldn't admit it, she knew that the kid was right. She tended to use Jon's whole name when she was angry and scolding him. "Fine. We'll talk about this later."

The boy smirked. "In reality, I should be yelling at you."

"And why's that?"

"You went out on a mission knowing that you were injured." Jon gave Nox a pointed look. "More people are put at risk when you do something stupid like that."

"To be fair, my mission was supposed to be simple. Go in, grab the serum, and get out. There wasn't supposed to be any fighting involved."

"And that's why we want to know why you chose to help the team and save Damien Wayne/" A woman's voice interrupted the two mysterious children. Nox looked up and finally seemed to coherently register the heroes in the room: Black Canary, Red Tornado, Batman, and Martian Manhunter stood in the room, while Superman and Dr. Fate stood by the door. Nox's brows frowned while she took in the heroes.

"It was one of my mentor's policies: if someone is asking for help and you were the one that heard that cry for help, then it is your duty to be that help." Nox said. "Miss Martian requested my help, so I helped."

Nox looked at Black Canary and saw that she was holding her arm. The girl frowned before fully looking around the room. The sheets on the bed were ripped from the mattress, there was even a bit of blood on them, and an IV hung limply from the side of the bed. In a wide arch in front of her were burn marks. Once her mind could catch up, Nox was able to figure out what happened.

"I'm sorry… I…"

Black Canary hid her arm behind her back and smiled at Nox. "Don't worry about it. I should have noticed that you might not be coherent when you woke up. You've been screaming for two hours before waking up. Maybe we could talk about it and what happened when you woke up."

At her words, the heroes witnessed a drastic change in Nox's attitude. They could feel the heat of the glare behind the girl's mask. "I don't need some fake counseling, Dinah Lance."

Batman's eyes narrowed behind his mask and all the other heroes stared at the girl in shock. Black Canary was the first to ask: "How do you know my civilian name."

Nox smirked and rose to her feet. Jon moved to his feet as well and stood next to the older girl, looking up at her with a raised eyebrow. The white Labrador moved to stand in front of the two. "It is sort of my prerogative to know who you all are. Makes avoiding you easier." She looked at each hero before naming them off one by one. "Clark Kent, Giovanni Zatara, John Smith, John Jones or J'onn J'onzz, Dinah Lance, and Bruce Wayne."

The heroes all shared a look and then looked at Batman, who gave no reaction besides a tick in his jaw like he was clenching it. Finding out their identities was one thing, but knowing exactly who the Bats was, the Greatest Detective alive and the best person at hiding his identity, it was quite shocking.

"I'm sure at least one of you know who I am." Nox's fingers moved to brush up against the mark that was barely hidden by the short sleeves of her shirt. "I assume doctor/patient confidentiality mean sh—poop in Gotham."

"Where'd you get all those marks?" Batman asked, not even bothering to deny her accusations.

"Well, this isn't a tattoo." Nox said, gesturing to the mark wrapping around her arm. "although I'm sure that's what Dr. Thompkins thought it was. As for everything else, well I'm collecting them."

Nox moved her hands to the sides of her mask and gently pulled it away from her face. Fellyra Outis smirked at the heroes who stared at the young girl shocked. The Team and Batman had met her as civilians and though nothing of her, just a poor abused child in the system. And yet here she stood, healthy and without a single injury, ones she had a few days prior. Her golden-green eyes stared back unwaveringly. Jon locked up at her, leaving his mask on, and he couldn't help the gasp that escaped his lips when he saw the green swirling in her eyes.

"Is that why you left without saying goodbye?" The boy asked and Fellyra ignored his question and asked her own: "Jon, how did you get here?"

The boy frowned. "A boomtube that Jay and you were working on."

"Ok… Use it to go home."

"I can't." The boy said and cowered under the girl's glare. It was a little unnerving now that he could see her eyes. "It broke as soon as I got here. I guess it wasn't actually made for interdimensional traveling."

"Interdimensional traveling?" The heroes asked, and even Batman was a bit in shock, even though he hid it well. Who were these children and where did they come from?


	5. Chapter 5

***A/N: Sorry that I haven't posted this in a while. With midterms and memos, I've been a little busy. Plus, with the coronavirus happening and my classes were moved from residential to online, I needed time to adjust.

* * *

Chapter 5

"_The universe is not a stagnant place where technology stands still and only the few govern its destiny. Rather, it is a multidimensional dynamic entity that interacts with all things, even the very smallest. And what part we each place in it and the effect we have on it is a matter of own choice."_

\- R.G. Risch

* * *

Justice League and the Team

The Watchtower

January 17, 2013 13:00 EDT

* * *

Both Fellyra and Jon rolled their eyes, although no one could tell with Jon since he still had his mask on. The girl put her hands on her hip and shook her head, while Jon crossed his arms, saying: "Yeah. Jay didn't believe in it either. Not until he met… well, he just didn't believe in interdimensional travel."

"It's not all about science… and if it's not science then Jay doesn't believe in it."

Fellyra said. The Team had just arrived right at that moment.

"Sounds like someone we know." Artemis joked giving Kid Flash a pointed look. Then her eyes went wide when she saw the person under the Nox mask. "You're—"

"The girl in the café? The one that gave you the tip about the prison break? Yeah." The girl smirked. "It would have been suspicious if Nox showed up when I was the only one that knew about it. Easier to tell someone else and then… well, you know what happened."

"You used us?"

"Ehhh."

"Fell is good at making you think you're in charge of the situation." Jon looked up at said girl. "But in reality, she's pulling the strings. But trust me, we're lucky she's on the side of good."

"Guess I learned one thing from my father," Fellyra said begrudgingly.

"Ah! That's right!" Jon turned to the older girl and he frowned. "Your father went missing."

"Then the world should celebrate."

"No. We think he's with Marx."

"Marx?" The girl's spine became straighter and she seemed to tense. "Marx is in prison."

"No, he's not." Jon shook his head furiously. "That's why I'm here. When Jay couldn't get a hold of you on your comm, I had to get here before he got to you. We think he's with your father."

"They couldn't get here if they tried." Fellyra frowned but her voice was losing its confident tone. The realization dawned on her face. "They took a boom-tube."

Jon nodded and the white Labrador whined.

"Damn it!" Fellyra turned away from Jon, her hands raking through her hair. The anxiety rolling off her was clear, even to the non-Martians.

"Who is Marx?" Nightwing asked.

"A psychopath." Fellyra glared over her shoulder at the heroes. "My _problem"_

The way she said "problem" told them that she wasn't going to answer any questions on the matter. Even Jon seemed to zip up.

"Who are you guys?!" Kid Flash cried, and the others seemed to agree. Jon's worries seemed to melt away instantly and he grinned mischievously. Fellyra took a deep breath and she was able to school her expression back to a stoic look.

"We're from another earth, one very much like this one. The difference is… all of our heroes are dead." Fellyra said. She glanced down at Jon before meeting everyone's one by one, hoping they would find the truth in her words without her having to reveal Jon's true identity. But it was a false hope, how can you trust two children you don't even know. The only person that didn't look skeptical of what Fellyra was saying, was Doctor Fate; and Fellyra suspected it was because he knew exactly what she was.

"Explain," Batman ordered and Fellyra sighed. At least the Bat lives up to his reputation… on both Earths.

"There's not much to tell. On this Earth, heroes are locked in a never-ending battle with your villains. You beat them, you put them in prison, and they break out of prison; rinse and repeat. Our Earth, the villains decided it was much easier to kill you." Fellyra laid a hand on Jon's shoulder, who had begun to slightly tremble. He looked up at her with a frown. "It's hard to explain to the point that you'll actually believe us."

"Well, I mean…" Jon looked at the white Labrador who sat beside them with his tongue hanging out. Fellyra looked at the dog too before shaking her head. "Or one of the Martians can read our minds."

"Hello, Megan! Why didn't we think of that?"

"Because we don't want to invade anyone's privacy," Batman told the young Martian who blushed slightly. "And after we witnessed how Fellyra reacted waking up, we thought it best not to invade her mind."

"It's a maze in there anyways. You weren't getting anywhere." Fellyra pushed Jon forward, who turned back to glare at her. "Read the boy's mind. He's more of an open book."

"Why me?"

"Because I said so."

"And what makes you the deciding vote?"

"Three reasons," Fellyra smirked, crossing her arms. "One, I'm older. Two, I've been trained to withstand torture in order to not give anything away. And three, your mother and father entrusted you to me, so that means what I say goes."

Jon frowned, his eyebrows disappearing under his mask. "Fine. But I thought we were trying to hide my identity."

"What's the point? They know who I am, so all they have to do is see me with you and your identity is blown." Fellyra shrugged and then Jon turned to Martian Manhunter. He put his hands on his hips, which oddly enough resembled Superman in some ways.

"Whenever your ready," Jon said, closing his eyes. Martian Manhunter's eyes began to glow green and Fellyra tensed beside the boy. The dog whined, moving to stand next to the boy but Fellyra stopped him by grabbing the scruff of his neck.

Moments later Martian Manhunter's eyes returned to normal and he looked at the other heroes, both young and old. He nodded at them before frowning at the young boy he returned to Fellyra's side, wrapping his arms around her waist. She ran her fingers through his hair and the dog jumped up, trying to comfort its owners.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Martian Manhunter said. "It must be hard being here."

"I don't remember them," Jon said. "The only family I ever knew was Fell and Jay."

Fellyra looked down at the boy sadly. She never wanted Jon to be apathetic towards his parents, but he was too young to remember them; and although both Fellyra and Jay spoke highly of both of them, all Jon can remember is that his parents abandoned him in order to be heroes. And even though Fellyra and Jay do the same thing, they always come back for him or make sure they tell him that they are alright.

The dog barked and Fellyra smiled softly. "How about we start with something easy? Where's the collar?"

Jon reached into the pocket of his sweatshirt and produced a golden collar with a matching tag. He clipped it around the dog's neck and stepped back from Fellyra, giving her a short nod.

"Alright!" Fellyra pounded her right fist into her left hand, her eyes shining an eerie gold. "Muto!"

Shadows swirled around Fellyra and her borrowed clothes changed into her Nox uniform, her hair braiding down her back. Her weapons appeared in their usual spot and a smirk found its way on her face. The dog barked, butt in the air and tail wagging ferociously. "Krypto! Suit up!"

The dog began chasing his tail, running faster and faster, becoming a white blur. And then as fast as he started, he halted. The same symbol as Superman's hung from his gold collar and a red cape shifted against his back. Krypto's raised from the ground, floating in the air beside the girl.

"Is that?" Kid Flash asked.

"We call him Krypto." Nox smirked. "Krypto the Superdog."

"Superman wasn't the only Kryptonian that came to our Earth. A puppy followed him a couple of months later." Jon said. He fingered the mask covering his eyes before looking at Nox with a small grin. "We're not alone."

Nox snapped her fingers and shadows spread around Jon. And then he stood tall, his mask gone, blue eyes shining. He wore ripped blue jeans, red converse, and what looked like a sweatshirt version of Superman's suit. The emblem was centered proudly on his chest and the reds of the Superman symbol spread up and over his shoulders before spreading out and becoming his cape.

"The name's Jonathan Samuel Kent." The boy grinned and the resemblance to the Boy Scout was uncanny. "I'm the Superboy of our Earth."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"_A wise man once told me: family don't end in blood. But it doesn't start there either. Family cares about you, not what you can do for them. Family's there… Through the good, bad, all of it. They got your back even when it hurts. That's family."_

_\- Dean Winchester, Supernatural_

* * *

Clark Kent, Jonathan Kent, Connor Kent, and the Kent Family

Kent Family Farm

January 27th, 2013 16:00 EDT

* * *

"How nice," Martha Kent smiled at the two boys that looked so much like her son. Clark had explained everything to them, and like they offered Connor their home, they offered young Jon. The boy in question looked highly uncomfortable, standing in the doorway with his hands in his red hoodie's pockets. "A nice family dinner."

Connor gave Jon a strained smile before looking at Clark who looked slightly uncomfortable. Connor feared that Clark will treat the young boy the same way he treated him when they first met. So, he suggested that they all come to Kent's farm at some time so that Jon didn't feel like he was being abandoned by his father. Fellyra had also mentioned that Jon was slowly developing Superman's abilities and that she wasn't sure how to help him control it. Clark and Connor were the only other people in the world that could help him.

"To think there are other Earths out there." The older Jonathan Kent laughed, patting his son's shoulder. "And that you have a child in at least one of those Earths. And I am so honored to have him named after me."

"Jay and Fell told me a lot about my father and his family. They wanted me to know how great you all were." Jon's cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "It is nice to finally put a face to the stories."

Martha frowned. "We heard about your Earth. It must have been hard growing up."

Jon shrugged. "I've never been alone. I've always had Fellyra, she protected me and helped raise me, and then we met Jay… He's the Flash of our Earth so he knew my father before he passed. Met my mother too."

"It would be nice to meet this Fellyra you talk so highly of." Martha smiled. She moved to set out plates on the table and Jon left the doorway to help her. This, of course, made Ma Kent smile widely and she pinched the boy's reddening cheeks. "And they taught you good manners too."

Jon laughed. "Maybe Fell can come next time."

Clark smiled at the hope in the little boy's eyes and he placed a hand on the boy's scrawny shoulder. "We'll definitely do that next time."

* * *

Fellyra and the Team

The Mountain, Happy Harbor

January 27th, 2013 16:00 EDT

* * *

Fellyra sat in the kitchen with Kaldur, M'gann, Artemis and Wally West; Krypto slept at her feet. M'gann was humming and making cookies while Kaldur and Wally were discussing their latest mission. The dark-haired girl sneezed, drawing everyone's attention.

"Bless you," Artemis said, looking up from the paperwork in front of her. "Someone must be talking about you."

Fellyra smirked. "The real question is: who isn't talking about me?"

The Team shared a glance and seemed to be having a telepathic conversation, which kind of irritated Fellyra. She didn't like feeling singled out and she knew that they were talking about her. "If you have something you want to say, just say it."

"Well, we were just wondering what your life was like on your Earth." Kaldur decided to be the one to question her. He gave her an encouraging smile. "It's just that you say some things about your life but you're not as open as Jon is."

Fellyra just shrugged. "I've got a lot of enemies out there. Some of my own making and others are just monsters. But I didn't have much of a life on my Earth, my father was an evil man and he made sure that my life had been decided for me. When I finally got away from him, I got to finally experience real happiness. But someone like me can't experience the light as you guys can."

"What do you mean?" Kaldur asked.

"It's hard to explain." Fellyra rubbed the back of her head and tried to think of an easy way to explain to them. "Well, my situation is kind of like the idea behind a Lord of Chaos and a Lord of Order. I am the Host to the Darkness, and although there have been many good Hosts, they've all experienced horrible fates."

"So, your powers are like… just darkness?" Wally asked.

"More or less so," Fellyra said. "Darkness and shadows. Then there's Umbra who is just a shadow being that follows my orders."

"Is your magic what helped you heal?" Artemis asked. "I mean, you had broken ribs and bruises."

Before Fellyra could answer her question, a beeping sounded from under the sleeve of her sweatshirt. She pushed back her sleeve to find the name _"Jay Garrick"_ rolling across the screen of her holo-computer. Really Jay? She thought. Ten days later and now you're going to call looking for Jon. Great caretaker you are.

When Fellyra pressed the answer call button, a man in his mid-thirties appeared on the kitchen counter as a tiny hologram. He wore what looked like the older version of the Flash suit, one that didn't actually hide his identity. He wore a silver helmet with gold wings on each side, blue pants and a red leather jacket that sported a gold lightning bolt going up the center of his chest. Red boots covered his feet and brown gloves protected his hands.

"Seriously Jay?" Fellyra smirked at the tiny version of the hero. "Did you actually wait ten days to contact me?"

"I assumed Jon was with you," Jay said. The man looked stress beyond belief and the Team that was present to see him assumed that it had to do with the fact that he was the only hero in a world with none whatsoever. A big job like that could be quite stressful. "When he heard about Marx and your father, he was extremely worried. When another boom tube went missing, my best guess was that he went to you."

Fellyra rolled her eyes. "He is. He found me right away."

"Of course, he would. I didn't doubt it." Jay laughed. "Where is he? Are you sending him back?"

"I can't. The boom tube broke upon arrival." Fellyra shrugged, her eyes shifting away from Jay. "Jon is with the Superman and the Superboy of this Earth. They invited him to dinner, and I thought it would be good for him."

Jay's eyes narrowed. "Good for him? So, in other words, you said you'd go with him and then once you got there, you disappeared."

"Pretty much."

"Classic Fell move." Jay rolled his eyes and gave the girl a disappointed look. "That Earth isn't our Earth. When Jon comes back here, his parents will still be dead."

"I know. But as long as he's stuck here with me, I want him to be happy. Especially, if Marx is here; he is safer with the Justice League and with me."

Jay gave Fellyra a disbelieving look; only half of her reasoning he believed. Jon is safer with the Justice League, but he was definitely not safer with Fell. "If Marx is there, then no one, at least no one you care about, is safe with you."

Artemis looked at the tiny hologram in shock. The way Jon talked about Jay was in a way that made it sound like Jay was family to him and Fellyra. But the way he spoke to the girl right now, made it sound like he resented her. And that brought a lot into perspective for Artemis. She thought she could understand Fellyra, after all, her father and sister were villains and from the sounds of it so was Fellyra's father. But at least Artemis had her mother and Wally and the Team that cared for her unconditionally. It seemed like Fellyra only had Jon.

"That's horrible to say." Artemis decided to cut in and the hologram turned to look at her. His eyes shifted over the team and there wasn't even an ounce of recognition in his eyes, like none of them existed in that Earth. "We've seen Fellyra fight. She's an excellent fighter."

"She is," Jay said. "But that doesn't change who Marx is. He vowed to take away everything that Fell holds dear, to kill everyone she loves. In other words, anyone who is close to Fell isn't safe."

"Who is this Marx?" Kaldur asked.

Fellyra didn't answer, instead, she got Jay's attention once more. "Did you get the sample I sent you?"

"Vincent is analyzing it as we speak," Jay answered.

"And you'll contact me once you know what's in it?"

"We will."

Fellyra nodded, chewing on her lip. The sooner they could find out what was in that serum she stole, the faster she could finish what she started on this Earth.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"_Let go of the past but keep the lessons it taught you."_

_\- Chiara Gizzi_

* * *

Fellyra Stark-Starling

Earth X-2, Purgatory

February 18, 2008 13:00 EDT

* * *

Fellyra groaned slightly, feeling a slight burning in her shoulder and the blood rushing towards her head. She slowly opened her eyes, taking in her predicament. She could see the ground sway through the window of the helicopter, the nylon strap of her seatbelt holding her to the seat. Behind her, there was blinding heat that made sweat roll from her hairline to her nose, dripping onto the seat in front of her.

"Adam?" She coughed, trying to get a look at the pilot. She heard him groan but other than that got no answer. He hung from his seat, the seat belt barely keeping him in place and Fellyra could see a considerable amount of blood running from his forehead and down the side of his face. His shirt was also coated in blood and Fellyra suspected that if she didn't save him now, he had no chance of survival afterward. "You'll be fine, Adam. I got you."

The young girl ignored the pain in her shoulder as she reached down to the waistband of leggings, pulling a knife out and hacking at the nylon straps that probably saved her life. The broke away, causing her to drop onto the back of the co-pilot seat. The helicopter groaned and jolted at the sudden movement, but otherwise remained suspended by whatever was holding the back of it.

Fellyra carefully maneuvered herself into the co-pilot seat and took in the damages. Adam was bleeding a lot more than she thought, but nothing she couldn't patch up once she got them out of their current predicament.

"_Umbra_." The girl whispered and the shadow appeared behind her, standing on the two seats and not affecting the weight in the helicopter at all. Its bloody red eyes looked at its master before looking at Adam. "I'm going to cut him out and you're going to catch him and get him out of here. I'll follow behind."

The shadow nodded and Fellyra inched her way over to Adam. She cut his seat belt and Umbra grabbed him before disappearing. He reappeared on the ground below, placing Adam safely away from the wreckage. Now that there was less weight on one side of the helicopter, it shifted and groaned loudly; Fellyra barely had enough time to dive through the side of the helicopter before it went crashing to the ground, fire engulfing it and the trees surrounding it.

"Adam!" Fellyra screamed, unable to see him through the flames.

Cold steel pressed against her neck and she froze, slowly glancing behind her. A woman stood behind her, one of Asian descent with long dark hair and dark eyes. She wore what looked like a black leather jacket with an olive fabric hood around her shoulders. She held a thin katana to Fellyra's neck and there was a hunting knife strapped to her leg. Behind her stood two teens, a girl with long wavy blonde hair and emerald eyes and a boy with brown hair and sapphire eyes. They both held pistols, pointing straight at Fellyra's head.

"Genesis." The older woman growled under her breath. Fellyra glared in response.

"Fellyra!" Someone called, their voice gravelly and full of pain. Fellyra's head whipped around, not minding the blade that drew a bit of blood. She watched as Adam appeared from the smoke, holding a hand to his chest. He brought up a gun from his side, leveling it at the woman behind Fellyra. "Let her go. She's just a child."

"Adam! Stop!" Fellyra shouted. "You're hurt."

The cold presence of the sword at her throat moved away and Fellyra jumped to her feet, catching Adam as he fell to his knees. She glanced at the Asian woman who stared at her in shock, her eyes wide and confused. She glanced at the teens behind her before waving to Fellyra. "Follow."

Fellyra's eyes narrowed as the boy moved to help her support Adam's weight.

"We weren't the only ones who saw your helicopter coming down." The boy said, grinning softly. "It's better if you follow us then wait for them."

Fellyra nodded, looking back at the wreckage and the flames momentarily before following the woman that just had a sword at her throat.

XXX

The small rag-tag group brought Fellyra and Adam to a cave hidden behind a waterfall. Immediately they set to work bandaging the pairs wounds, for which Adam's were so much worse. The dark-haired woman gave Adam some kind of ointment for his burns and wounds before giving him some kind of tea that promptly knocked him out cold.

Fellyra sat by Adam for what felt like hours, no one in the cave striking up a conversation. No one bothered to ask who she was, so she didn't bother with them. Her main concern was Adam. That was until she, like her new companions, heard gunfire right outside the cave. The woman and the two teens rushed from the cave.

Fellyra hesitated before slowly moving out of the cave, hugging the shadows like she had been trained to do since she could walk. Dropping low to the ground, Fellyra felt the ground for some sort of weapon. All she found was a stray branch… It could work, she could turn bubblegum into a weapon. She then surveyed the situation, so she would know exactly what she was getting into.

A young man had joined the three islanders, shooting with a rifle from behind a rock. His hair was shoulder length and dark, skin tan from time in the sun, and dark eyes that were beyond focused. In the distance, five men shot their weapons from the tree line. They were wearing dark short-sleeve uniforms and black cargo pants. Fellyra recognized they symbol on their chest which made her blood boil. The red "G" with a slash through it was easy to see from her position.

Fellyra grabbed two rocks from the ground and threw them with pinpoint precision. The rocks jammed up two of the men's guns and it backfired at them, knocking them back. She hugged the shadows until the tree line, and then she shot out with the stick in her hand. She knocked the guns from two more hands before the branch broke from taking a bullet as a guard.

"You." The lone man growled. He lashed out with the butt of his gun and Fellyra handspring back, grabbing knives from the two men making their way to their feet. She used those knives to stab the two men in the back before they could get up. The two men who she threw the rocks at hadn't moved since their guns backfired on them, which was luck on Fellyra's part. Gold burned in her eyes as she struck out, stabbing a knife in the man's stomach before tackling him. She held the knife to his throat and the man's eyes widened with fear.

"Twitch and I'll open up your throat," Fellyra growled. The man stopped moving totally and footsteps could be heard coming up beside them. Fellyra grabbed the knife embedded in the man's stomach. She ripped it out, pointing the knife's tip at the man she had seen with the rifle. The teens and the woman walked up beside him.

The man said nothing and then Fellyra's ears were ringing with the sound of a gunshot. The man under her stilled, all the breath leaving her body. The rifle went off four more times and Fellyra looked at the dead men around her. It wasn't the first time she had seen someone killed right before her eyes, heck her father did it on a daily basis as she grew up, but it has been a long time since she saw someone executed that was defenseless.

"What the hell!?" Fellyra growled, jumping to her feet and pressing the knife deeper into the man's throat. He was tall compared to the ten-year-old, so she had to stretch to be threatening. "I had them subdued!"

The man pushed away from the girl's hand easily. "You clearly haven't been here long. It's kill or be killed here on Purgatory."

Fellyra glared. "So, survival?"

The man nodded. She knew who these men in the uniform were, they tortured children and killed innocents. They deserved to die, and Fellyra knew it, but she swore to herself she'd never become like her father. So, she didn't kill but she knew that sometimes it was necessary in order to survive in this world. Hell, she saw a man who was as righteous as they come, kill in order to survive.

"How old are you?" The man asked, looking over the child who was now covered in blood. His eyes narrowed on the uniform that she wore that was very much like the dead men's, but she had didn't have the "G" patch anymore. And unlike the cargo pants, Fellyra wore Kevlar leggings and her shirt was more like a tank top. "You look like you're no older than eight."

"I'm ten," Fellyra growled.

"Her helicopter was shot down by the Genesis Project Soldiers. We saw her escaping from the crash." The Asian woman said. "She had someone with her. He's back in the cave, healing."

The man looked at the woman before turning back to the girl. He felt like he saw this child before, but he couldn't place where. There was something eerily familiar with the way she fought and the golden-blue eyes that glared at him.

"Marx Wilcox." The man said holding out his hand to the girl. He could easily recognize the fierce fighting spirit in her eyes and in the way she stood. Although she was small, muscles twitched in her arms. She was lean and fierce.

"Fellyra." The girl said, placing her hand in his and giving it a firm shake. She hesitated on her last name but knew it could only help, rather than hurt. "Fellyra Stark-Starling."

Marx's eyes widened at her last name before he nodded his head in understanding. Everyone in the world knew who Fellyra Stark-Starling was, they also knew she had been missing for years. But here she stood, wearing a uniform similar to the Genesis Project. It is clear where she had been, and Marx felt bad for her.

"That is Mei Gulong." Marx pointed out the Asian woman before pointing to the blonde teen and then the other brown-haired teen. "Mia Dearden. And that's Joseph Wilson."

Fellyra's eyes narrowed when she finally learned the names of her chance meeting "comrades". But if they weren't going to judge her on her heritage then she wouldn't judge them on their past and parentage. She couldn't say the same for Adam though.

"We call ourselves the Quislings." Joseph Wilson said with a grin.

"No, we don't." Marx and Mei said at the same time.

Joseph nodded secretly and Fellyra was barely able to hold back a smile.

* * *

Fellyra and the "Quislings"

Earth-X2, Purgatory

April 2, 2008 18:30 EDT

* * *

Mei stood beside Fellyra, pointing at a bird in the underbrush. The younger girl gripped the old bow lightly, arrow notched, and the string pulled back. She sighted down the bird, using her finger as a guide. She took in a deep breath and then released the arrow as she released that breath. The arrow soared through the air and nailed the bird through the eyes. It fell to the side, dead.

"Good." Mei praised, and then both girls trudged through the forest to retrieve the bird. When they came out of the forest, Marx was nowhere in sight, but Mia and Joseph were training with Eskrima sticks.

"Where's Marx?" Mei asked, dropping the bird to the ground next to the fire. Joseph gave a noncommitting wave of his hand before he launched towards Mia, who blocked his attack. Fellyra ran over to where Adam was leaning against a rock. He had gotten an infection that he was barely able to fight. Now he was constantly week, barely able to walk.

"How are you feeling?" Fellyra asked. She places the back of her hand against his forehead and then his cheeks and was pleased to find that his temperature dropped considerably.

"Fine," Adam said. "As soon as I'm better, we need to find a way off this island."

Fellyra nodded. "Don't worry about it too much."

At that moment, Marx came out of the forest. He was wearing his typical dark jeans and dark green turtleneck. Leather straps crisscrossed in front of his chest and held plenty of knives, A katana was strapped to his back, another he held in his hand. He had tied back his hair at the nape of his neck, and he was using mud to darken his eyes and face.

"Fellyra!" He called. The girl made sure Adam was comfortable before she ran over to Marx. He handed her the extra katana he had and then motioned with his head for her to follow. They walked through the forest together and until they got to a cliff. Marx gestured to a ship down below.

"What?"

"Our ticket out of here," Marx said, grinning at the younger girl. "It comes in every other week to supply Ivo with whatever he needs for his mad experiments."

"Ivo?" Fellyra asked. She had heard the name before throughout her years with the Genesis Project, but she wasn't sure she met him. "I thought he focused on robotics."

"Maybe he's making an evil robot."

"Tch." Fellyra looked over the boat as it started to set sail again. "So, if we don't get on that boat, we'll be stuck on this island."

Marx nodded.

"Great."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: this chapter and the next has inspiration from somewhere else and if you catch onto what it is, then you'll probably be able to guess what happens in the next chapter. **

**Also! I should state that I do not own Young Justice, as we all know because I'm on FanFiction. The only characters I own are Fellyra, Marx, and some of the people from Fellyra's past. And yes Mia, Mei, and Joseph are technically DC characters but I'm using them as Alternate Versions (kind of) of what they were in the comics. **

**Enjoy!**

Chapter 8

"_Always go with the choice that scares you the most, because that's the one that is going to help you grow."_

_\- Caroline Myss_

* * *

Fellyra and Marx

Earth-X2, Purgatory

October 21, 2009 11:00 EDT

* * *

They buried Adam a couple months ago after infection and fever took his life. Fellyra mourned his life pretty hard, given that they wouldn't have been anywhere near the island had it not been for her. They were flying over the island because Fellyra had gotten a tip that there was OM-54 serum still left somewhere near the island. Now she was wondering if the whole thing was a trap.

_You can't become attached to people. They are a distraction. _Marx had said, trying to comfort her in his own weird way. _Caring about people gets you killed._

"Fellyra!" The girl in question looked up at Marx, while sharpening her katana. Mia and Joseph had gone to get firewood while Mei was plucking a bird. The man called to the girl so they could go ahead and scout the area. "Let's go."

Fellyra just nodded and followed him. They moved to higher ground in order to get a better lay of the land. The boat hadn't arrived in weeks and Fellyra feared that they would be stuck on the island forever. But upon getting to the top of the mountain, they found a plane in a clearing below.

"Is that?" Fellyra's jaw almost dropped.

"A plane? Yes." Marx grinned and moved to the edge of the cliff. He laughed loudly. "Once we're off this island, you can form all the attachments you want, kid."

The cliff gave out from under Marx, not able to hold his weight. Rocks fell away as Marx began sliding down. He gripped at everything in order to save himself but there was nothing he could grab onto. Fellyra shot forward and grabbed his flailing arms, and with her help he was able to catch himself and climbed back over the cliff edge.

"I guess it's a good thing that I haven't avoided attachment to you," Fellyra smirked.

Marx chuckled and rolled his eyes at the kid. He looked back at the plane with a wide grin. "You know when we discussed leaving the boat by island, we were strangers. I didn't even like you, you were a pain in the ass. But, now we'll be leaving as family. Just like how Mei, Mia, Joseph, and I are. Not blood, but family."

Fellyra looked at Marx shocked for a minute before grinning. "Family. Can't say I know what that exactly means."

Marx laughed. "Guess not with your family."

Fellyra smirked and then looked over the island. Her smile faltered when she saw Ivo's camp and a machine being set up. Two large cylinder object was attached to that machine and it was pointed directly at the cave and where she knew they left Mei. She jumped to her feet and Marx looked at her confused before following her gaze. His eyes widened when he also saw what she saw. Without a second thought, Fellyra sprinted down the mountain and into the forest. She could hear Marx screaming behind her.

"Fell!"

Explosions went off around them, shaking the ground and engulfing the forest in flames. The heat didn't really affect Fellyra, all she could think about was her friends… her family. She couldn't lose anyone else, not after Adam. Not after Adrian.

There was another explosion, a loud shout, and then darkness surrounded her.

XXX

When Fellyra woke up, she was in some sort of tent, her legs chained to a wooden post behind her. She glanced around her and saw a little girl in a cage across from her; the girl was barely four. She was hooked up to an IV and on a table next to her cage was a syringe with bluish-green liquid.

"Who are you?" Fellyra whispered.

The little girl frowned. "Cheyanne."

"Hi Cheyanne." Fellyra tried to sound comforting but the girl just cocked her head to the side. "My name is Fellyra."

The little girl flinched away as the tent flap was pushed to the side and in walked Slade Wilson in his orange and black mask and a middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair. He was wearing a suit that Fellyra thought was weird considering they were on a deserted island.

"You must be Ivo," Fellyra growled. "What are you doing here?"

"Fellyra Outis," The man laughed and Fellyra flinched at the old name she used to go by. Back when she was still with the Genesis Project. "It is weird seeing a successful experiment. But quite remarkable; maybe little Cheyanne will be as lucky."

Fellyra pulled at the chains holding her ankles, she growled viciously. "No one will ever be a success like me! It is a death sentence!"

"Sure." Ivo nodded with a laugh. "Anyone that took a cocktail of serums as you did will definitely die from one drug or another. They just don't mix. But if it is just the OM-54, will this person actually get super strength? What are the side effects too? I'm so fascinated and here is someone who knows all the answers to my question."

"Rage. Hatred. This unbearable need to kill." Fellyra informed and Ivo looked at the girl with wide, interested eyes. The young girl could feel the evil intent rolling off the man, its darkness calling out to her own. "It's like an itch you can't scratch. Your decision-making abilities are lacking and you become nothing more than a tool for destruction."

"Interesting." Ivo examined the girl. "So those are the side effects, but in exchange, you get enhanced strength, stamina, and endurance. Your reflexes and agility are above what a human can normally do. Your healing process is beyond rapid. You can heal from a broken arm in a matter of days, maybe hours, can't you?"

"I rather not have them if it meant I wouldn't have to fight for my sanity and humanity for the rest of my life."

Ivo nodded before looking at Cheyanne who cowered away. "Do you hear that girl? You'll get superpowers and the worst of the side effects is rage."

Cheyanne whimpered.

Fellyra shot to her feet, lashing out at the scientist but he was too far from her. The chains creaked and buckled behind her. "You just don't get it! It's not worth it. But I promise you, if you lay a hand on that child, I'll kill you!"

"We'll see about that." Ivo chuckled and then he tensed when gunfire went off right outside the tent. Slade Wilson turned slightly to the sound but kept an eye on the eleven-year-old girl just in case she broke free. However, with an order from Ivo, Slade left the tent to investigate. Ivo glared at the girl and said: "Don't move."

He left the tent too and Fellyra just rolled her eyes. Yeah, like she was going to listen to him. She turned to the chains at her legs and fire formed in the palm of her hand. She focused on the chains and they melted away to the point that Fellyra could break them with just a pull. She ran over to the toddler, using the same flames to break the lock on her cage. Cheyanne crashed into Fellyra's awaiting arms.

"You'll be fine," Fell whispered. Her eyes landed on the syringe on the table and she hurried to grab it and placed it in the waistband of her leggings. She then dropped down into a fighting stance when she heard the flap of the tent rustle. Mei peeked in; a gun strapped to her shoulder. A smile broke out over her face when she saw Fellyra.

"Hurry!" Mei hissed. "Marx can't keep Slade distracted much longer."

For the first time, Fellyra noticed that the gunfire had ceased and was replaced by the sounds of metal scraping against metal.

"Do you have another gun?" Fellyra asked and Mei passed her a pistol with a wide grin on her face. "Let's go then."

They ran out of the tent side by side. Cheyanne clung to Fellyra's back, her head buried in the back of her shoulders. Both girls fired their guns as men ran at them and then they were pushing out into the fray that had circled around Marx and Slade. He was weakening under Slade's attack and he was shaking and sweating with the effort to take Slade down. Fellyra's eyes widened when she saw that Marx's face was burnt and blistering, that he was barely recognizable; and she realized almost immediately that he must have sustained those injuries from the explosion when he was chasing after her.

So, Fellyra just reacted in order to save Marx's life. She fired her pistol and the bullet embedded itself in Slade's shoulder. He was jolted back with the impact and Mei ran to help support their ailing ally. Fellyra kept shooting at different people that came at them until she had no more bullets left. The small group took off into the forest, dodging bullets as they went. When they were far enough away, Mei lowered Marx to the ground. He was breathing heavily, and his lips were so pale.

"Go without me." He huffed. He looked at both Fellyra and Cheyanne before smiling softly at Mei. "Hurry before they catch up."

"I don't leave people I care about. You can't get rid of me that easily; I'm going to protect you." Mei pushed his dark hair away from his burns.

Fellyra placed Cheyanne on the ground before kneeling in the leaves next to Marx. The stench of the herbal ointment made Fellyra nose burn and winkle, but she sat beside him anyways. "You said we were family. I don't leave my family behind if I can help it."

"I'll just weigh you guys down." He tried to smile around his burns but flinched from the effort. "And I know I won't survive without proper medical care. I've seen burns like these on other soldiers before… The pain killed them. The infections. I'm not going to make it no matter what."

Fellyra frowned and hesitated for a moment before pulling the syringe from the waistband of her pants. She stared at the liquid shimmering in the glass and both Mei and Marx stared at it, their brows frowned in confusion.

"What is that?" Mei asked.

"It's a drug that Ivo was testing. It's why I came here in the first place." Fellyra muttered. "The Genesis Project calls it the OM-54 serum. It is a pretty strong drug that among other enhanced abilities it gives a person, it gives them rapid cellular regeneration. It might be able to heal you. I've seen it heal people with cancer, stage 4."

"Are you sure it will heal Marx's burns, or at least enough for him to survive?" Mei asked and Fellyra nodded in response.

"But there are side effects and there's no guarantee that it won't kill you either," Fellyra said and met Marx's gaze. "It's killed as many people as it's saved. It's pretty much a coin toss."

Mei frowned and looked at Marx, not wanting to look at the young girl when she said, "You survived it."

Fellyra sucked in a breath and looked at Mei who refused to meet her eyes. She had never told any of the Quislings that she had been experimented on. But maybe they just assumed that was what happened when they found out she was with the Genesis Project for a period of time. And it was evident that Fellyra knew enough about the OM-54 serum, that anyone could reasonably assume that Fellyra had some interaction with this serum. "I did."

"And you were definitely a lot younger than you are now," Marx whispered. "I'm older and stronger than you were. I'll survive, I'm sure of it… I promise."

Fellyra shook her head. "There were people just like you who didn't survive. Being strong and older means nothing when it comes to this serum."

"If there's a chance, I want to take it. I need to take it, for my family" Marx said, giving the girl a pointed look. Fellyra hesitated and then nodded. She pulled the plastic cap off the needle before plunging it into Marx's arm. Her eyes shifted shut as the liquid emptied from the syringe and ran through Marx's veins. She pulled out the needle and Marx began screaming, clutching at his arm. The burn of the serum traveling through his blood fast. Fellyra could relate to the pain and she empathized. It was a pain that felt like your whole body was burning up. It was torture.

And then Mei pulled Marx into his arms as he began convulsing. Black blood began streaming from his eyes, mouth, and nose. Fellyra jumped forward, looking him over and trying to do anything she could to save him, trying to stop the blood. But it became clear that he wasn't the right candidate for the serum when his eyes clouded over, not focusing on anything. It was stupid of her to listen to him; she should have tried to convince him more. Maybe he would have survived his burns, maybe it was actually the serum that ended his life.

Mei began crying, rocking their friend in her arms. She ran her fingers through his hair, her tears falling on the dark, patchy skin.

"No," Fellyra whispered, placing her hand on Marx's shoulder. He was growing cold to the touch. "Please open your eyes. Please. You said you'd survive; you promised."

People yelling drew their attention away from their fallen friend. Fellyra turned to Cheyanne and pulled her onto her back once more before turning to Mei. The Asian woman wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded at the younger girl. They had to save the living; they didn't have time to mourn the dead. So Mei laid Marx carefully on the ground before placing a kiss on his forehead. Then both girls took off further into the forest, leaving their friend behind. The ran into the unknown not sure where else they could run on such a small island.

XXX

Sometimes Fellyra wished she had the ability to go back in time and change the past. But she didn't have the ability and that means that when something happened in her life, it was permanent. She would never be able to change her decisions and save the people she loved. If she could go back and never given Marx the serum, she'd do it in a heartbeat. If she could go even further back and not run off without Marx during the missile strike, she would do it. If it meant that it would stop the events that followed, Fellyra would do anything. Even give up her own life.

_Choose!_ She could hear Ivo's voice ringing through her head, she could smell the sweat of soldiers and the smoky smell of gunpowder. Everything happened so fast and yet so slow. She could see the flash of the pistol in her mind's eye, burned forever in her memories. She had made a choice she wished she could take back. Why didn't she pick herself?

Darkness consumed them with a cry, and then the world changed around them. Suddenly Ivo wasn't there anymore; his pistol and his men gone. Instead, Mia and Joseph stood over them, their eyes wide and sorrowful. They looked down at Fellyra, her blood-soaked hands and the mud and soot on her face. They looked at the four-year-old that clung to Fellyra's side. And then they saw Mei laying in Fellyra's lap, a bullet hole through the center of her head.

The eleven-year-old was in shock, just staring down at Mei. Black veins were spreading up her neck and face, her eyes golden but dull. Memories from moments before flashing before her eyes, a whirlwind of pain and fear.

_"Please!" Cheyanne cried out when the soldiers and Ivo caught up to them amongst the trees. She grabbed onto Ivo's pant leg, tears rolling from her large blue eyes. "Please, Papa! I'll go back with you! I'll do whatever you want. Please don't hurt them, they were just trying to save me."_

_ Ivo just smirked at the little girl before pushing her and Mei to their knees. Slade Wilson tightened his hold on Fellyra's wrists when she struggled, but they allowed her to remain standing. "I won't hurt you," Ivo whispered, pointing a pistol to the back of the little girl's head before moving it behind Mei's. Mei's dark eyes fluttered shut like she was accepting her fate. "But Fellyra might. She just needs to choose, there are three choices here."_

_ "You're nuts!" Fellyra screamed, trying to free herself from the mercenary's grip. "I would never hurt either one of them!"_

_ "I want to see that rage; this side effect you were talking about." Ivo grinned. "Show me what it means to be a successful experiment of the Genesis Project. You have ten seconds to choose who dies. Choose wisely, you don't want to regret it later."_

_ "No!" Fellyra screamed, her body trembling. "That's your daughter you're putting on the line. You won't hurt her! You can't hurt her!"_

_ "Six seconds," Ivo stated, his voice monotone._

_ "You sociopath!" She screamed, her voice becoming desperate. Someone, anyone… help them._

_ "Three seconds."_

_ "I can't just turn it on and off!" Fellyra tried to reason. "I've been controlling it for so long that the side effects don't affect me as much anymore!"_

_ "Time's up." Ivo moved the pistol to his own daughter's head and the girl began crying loudly. Time slowed and desperation took over. Fellyra was able to rip her arms from Slade's grasp and jumped between the little girl and Ivo's gun with a scream. The fear in the little girl's eyes reminded her of her own so many years ago, the eyes that stared at their psychopathic father and knew what would come of them at their own loved one's hand. "I guess you've made your choice."_

_ Mei had been able to jump up at the same time Fellyra did, they saw each other, and they reacted. No one was going to die, that was their choice… Not if they could help it. Mei went for Ivo's gun as he turned the gun her. But she was barely able to get halfway to him before the bullet burst through her forehead. She fell in front of her, staring, the light died in her eyes that instant. All the courage, hope, and love gone… In an instant. Why her?_

_ "NO!" The word burned through her, fire and rage and something so dark and deadly coursed through her veins. Shadows and flames burst out around her, tossing the soldiers, Ivo, and Slade back, then the shadows circled her and Mei and Cheyanne. They were gone in a blink of an eye. _

_ And then they were there… before Mia and Joseph… the dead, the betrayed, and the empty shell. She was trying to choose herself, and she thought she had when she felt the barrel of the gun against her forehead. But Mei didn't want there to be a choice. It was either all of us or her._

"Fell," Mia whispered.

"_Quia non est mihi vindictam ego terminis_." Fellyra muttered, her voice overlapping with another eviler one. A sinister one filled with so much hatred and malice. The shadows sparked up around her before dying down. "My revenge will know no bounds."

Darkness and pain followed.

_Believe a little bit longer. _Mei's voice was nothing but a whisper on the wind and long forgotten. Her last words… gone… dying with her. Why'd it had to be her?


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"_When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself."_

_\- Jodi Picoult_

* * *

Marx

Earth-X2, Purgatory

October 21, 2009 19:00 EDT

* * *

Marx awoke with a start, gasping for air. His whole body was oversensitive, the air like needle pricks on his skin. His blood still burned in his veins, but he felt so much more alive, so much stronger. He felt like he had all the power in the world. When he rolled to his feet he no longer felt the weakness in his legs. Then he lifted his hands to his face, letting them linger there for a moment. The burns and scabs were gone and whatever pain he once had was long since forgotten.

"Mei? Fellyra?" The man glanced around, looking for both the girls in question. He wasn't sure how long he was out besides for the fact that the sky had now darkened. He had no idea where the two girls could have possibly gone but he followed his gut. If they went anywhere, they'd go where Mia and Joseph would find them; where he would go in a heartbeat. So, he ran, faster than he had ever run before; the power was so exhilarating.

When he came upon the clearing, he found Mia and Joseph standing over someone, their faces a mix of pain and sorrow. Then the world slowed down. Joseph leaned over to pick someone up before tapping a toddler on the back. They walked away together, and Mia kneeled down next to a body on the ground, her hand reaching out and stroking the person's face. Marx's knees buckled and he fell to the ground.

"No… please no." He whispered. Mia must have heard him because she looked up with a frown. Her heart seemed to stop, and she tried to say something, but Marx wasn't hearing her. He pushed himself to his feet once more and stumbled over to the body on the ground, dropping to his knees. "Mei."

His hand reached out and stroked her forehead, pushing her hair away from her face. His fingers brushed over the bullet hole and he felt sick, very sick. She was so still. Without thinking, he pulled Mei into his lap and began to rock her, tears forming in his eyes. His tears fell onto Mei's pale cheeks and he choked up.

"What happened?" He cried, his throat clogging up with grief. "What happened?"

"We don't know," Mia said softly, laying a comforting hand on the older man's shoulder. He just shrugged her off, his grief overwhelming her. "Fellyra just appeared out of nowhere with her. She was in shock so we couldn't get anything out of her. The only thing she said was something in another language."

"Where is she?" Marx couldn't take his eyes off of Mei's face, but a part of him was worried about the younger girl. How was she? Was she hurt? As soon as that thought came, he banished it because all that mattered was Mei at that moment.

"She passed out. Joseph took her into the cave. Something's wrong with her."

Marx finally looked up at Mia, grief evident in the stress lines of his face. His brows frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"She just appeared in this shadow cloud… thing." Mia gestured to the spot Marx now sat with Mei in his lap. "Her eyes were just gold, no hint of blue at all. And she had these black veins running up her face."

Marx just nodded, extremely confused but still in shock. He and Mei had known each other for a long time. They grew up together and her father helped train him. They even served in the Corp together. And although he never told her, he loved her unconditionally; losing her was like losing a part of himself. He thought of Fellyra, Mia, and Joseph as siblings, but Mei was different… Mei was his world.

XXX

The next day, Marx was burying Mei next to Adam with the help of Joseph, Mia, and the little girl that Fellyra had saved from Ivo yesterday. It was when Mei was fully buried and Mia was laying flowers on the raised dirt, that Fellyra came out. She was slow, her body tense. Whatever marks had appeared on her skin was long gone and her eyes returned to their usual golden-blue.

"Ivo killed her." The shell-shocked girl muttered. All her energy seemed to have left her body and Marx was sure that she was withholding her true emotions. And she also didn't seem to notice that Marx was actually standing before her. She didn't realize that he was alive. "He shot her. We were outnumbered, and he shot her."

"Ivo did?" Marx tried to clarify, he wanted to make sure that he knew exactly who killed Mei, who was responsible for her death. He also wanted the girl to acknowledge that he was there and alive. But, the child just stared at him blankly.

"Yes."

Something in Marx seemed to spark, something he couldn't control. Rage boiled in his veins and he began to see red. Everyone disappeared around him and nothing, but an uncontrollable sense of hatred filled him. All he knew was that he would kill Ivo; kill Ivo and every soldier on this island. When he was through with them, they'd wish they'd never been born. He had to; the rage was telling him that it was the only choice. Ivo deserved to die.

"I will find him, and I will kill him," Marx said darkly. He turned to Mia and Joseph. "Fellyra and I saw a plane in the next clearing over; it's unguarded. You guys will take it and get off this island."

"We're not leaving you," Joseph said. "You can't fight Ivo and his whole army alone. We'll come with you."

"No!" Marx commanded, his rage burning in his eyes. The look made Joseph and Mia both flinched away, he didn't quite look like himself. The heat of Marx's anger seemed to awaken Fellyra from whatever funk she was in. Her eyes narrowed on the man, sensing that he was about to snap and when you snapped, there was no going back. "You will leave on that plane whether it is alive or in a casket. I will handle Ivo myself. He will die by hand… There is so much power coursing through me that I could take on a whole army, guns and all."

"Marx," Fellyra warned. "You're angry. You're not thinking straight."

"Of course, I'm angry!" He screamed, turning on the girl who didn't even flinch, just met his glare with her own. "He murdered the only person I loved."

"And you're blinded by rage," Fellyra told him. "I get you to want to avenge Mei, but getting us and yourself killed defeats the whole purpose. The serum doesn't make you that strong, bullets can still kill you. And we saw the plane once, there is no way of knowing that it is unguarded and that it's safe for any of us to leave on it. And how will you get off the island if you are able to kill Ivo and his men?"

"The boat." He growled.

"We haven't seen the boat in months! You could be stuck on this island forever. We need to plan first. Forget this rage-filled crusade and think."

The rage seemed to vanish in a blink of an eye, and he looked at the girl sadly. He nodded. "We'll plan and then you guys will leave once we know the plane's safe."

"The others can leave. I'm staying." Fellyra said and Marx glared.

"No, you won't. You're a child, you will be no help to me."

The girl straightened her spine, eyes narrowing, her fingers flexing into a fist. "Did you forget who I am? I am Fellyra Stark-Starling. The only survivor of the Genesis Project, someone who knows the power of the OM-54 serum better than anyone. I am _Zil._ I am _Warith al Ghul_. I am no child and you have yet to see the things I can really do."

Marx was taken aback from Fellyra finally admitting to who she truly was and if Marx wanted anyone standing by his side to take down the men on this island, it would be the heir to the demon. The child who survived malicious experiments and came out stronger than ever. Them as a pair was unstoppable, the strongest duo in the world.

After only a moment of thought, Marx nodded. Together they would take down Ivo.

For Mei.

* * *

Fellyra and Marx

Earth X-2, Purgatory

December 24, 2009 20:00 EDT

* * *

The ship ended up coming back two weeks ago and hasn't left since. Both Fellyra and Marx had witnessed Ivo enter the ship and only came out occasionally. Neither was quite sure what he was up to but Fellyra suspected that he had started to rework the serum on his ship. With Ivo keeping to the same schedule, it was clear to say that the plane was safe and that Ivo would be easy to find. It was now or never.

It was on this day that the group decided to split. Mia and Joseph would take Cheyanne and go to the plane. They wouldn't wait for Marx or Fellyra, they would just go. Marx and Fellyra would head to the ship, they would sneak on and take over the ship, and they would destroy all the OM-54 serum that Ivo may have created. Their plan was simple but Fellyra had a feeling that something bad would happen.

The pair stood at the tree line, surveying the ship. Marx was clipping on armor over his turtleneck and strapping on the leather bands that held his weapons. He hooked his Katana to his back along with a crossbow. Fellyra had also changed, her typical Genesis Project uniform replaced with leggings that had armor protecting her knees and ankles and she wore a black turtleneck, armor also guarding anything vital. Her Katana was strapped to her back with a plain nylon cord and she had a hunting knife strapped to her thigh. Her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail.

"Are you ready?" Marx asked, looking down at the pre-teen.

Fellyra just nodded, the muscles rippling in her arms. Her eyes sparkled with a deep, hidden rage.

"If you find Ivo, leave him to me," Marx said. "I want to kill him myself."

Fellyra said nothing and Marx took that as an affirmative. They both proceeded to sneak onto the ship, separating to find Ivo and his men. Plenty of men came at Fellyra and she took them out without blinking an eye., one by one. Something dark and malicious seemed to linger under the surface and it took everything in her not to act on it. Each person she killed didn't seem to register with her. They were evil people, murderers and wouldn't think twice about killing her. And they didn't think twice, just came at her in waves.

Then Fellyra spotted Ivo, running up the stairs to the command center of the boat. She followed him, staying close to the shadows and her footsteps silent. When she slipped into the room behind him, he didn't even hear her or notice her until there was a blade at his neck.

"Will you kill me, child?" Ivo chuckled nervously. "Didn't think you had it in you."

"On your knees," Fellyra growled.

"Are you serious?"

"I will kill you the same way you killed Mei." The girl hissed. "Get. On. Your. Knees."

An explosion went off on the boat around them and Fellyra knew it was Marx's handy work. He must have found the serum. Ivo didn't look as brave as he did when he held a gun to his daughter's head and Mei's, so he dropped to his knees. Fellyra's hand shook and she was second-guessing her decision; it wasn't fair that she was armed, and he wasn't. If she made this choice now, there was no turning back.

"Not so easy killing an unarmed man now is it child?" Ivo taunted.

"Seemed pretty easy when you shot Mei in the head."

"I did no such thing. I may have held the gun and pulled the trigger, but you aimed it." Fellyra pressed the sword to his throat, drawing blood. "I gave you a choice! You chose my daughter; you could have fought with your friend and overpowered me. But you chose my daughter instead, didn't even think twice. You know that you are the only one to blame, don't you?"

Fellyra didn't say anything, the fire raging outside the window. She continued to hold the blade to Ivo's throat, and she found her resolve. "I do. But that doesn't mean I won't kill you."

"Fine. But what will he do to you now that he knows who is responsible?" Ivo nodded his head to an area behind Fellyra and she turned her head slowly to meet Marx's eyes. His brows frowned in confusion before rage took over. Betrayal was written all over his face.

"Tell me it isn't true."

"I can explain, Marx," Fellyra stated softly, holding out her hands in front of her as if to ward him off.

"Tell him, girl." Ivo taunted from behind her. "Tell him the truth! Tell him how you chose a little girl you don't even know over Mei. You let her fight all alone and just watched as she died. Tell him!"

"Shut up!" Fellyra commanded before turning back to Marx. "Don't listen to him. He's a psychopath!"

"Tell him I'm lying," Fellyra said nothing and her silence was all Marx needed. Whatever humanity he had been holding onto left him. He snapped and there was no coming back from the rage of the serum, he would never be himself again.

"You didn't help her. You didn't choose her." He swung his katana out and Fellyra was barely able to deflect it with her own. He threw a punch and Fellyra dropped under it, but he grabbed her by her throat and threw her against the wall. From the corner of Fellyra's eye, she saw Ivo escaping.

"Ivo. He's escaping." She choked out.

"He's dead. As dead as you." Marx's fist was lightning fast and then Fellyra was seeing stars. Darkness forming at the corner of her eyes. Then there was nothing as she passed out.

* * *

Fellyra

Earth X-2, Purgatory

December 25, 2009 09:00 EDT

* * *

Fellyra woke up in a cell below the ship, a porthole the only thing giving her light. She pushed herself to her feet and looked out the window. The ship hadn't moved at all, still anchored at the shore. Marx hadn't left the island yet. Why?

A plane appeared above the trees and flew out over the ocean. Relief filled her when she knew that Mia and Joseph were safe. But that relief was torn away from her in an instant when the plane exploded in a large ball of fire right over the water. Fellyra dropped to her knees, all her strength leaving her body. No. No, not them too.

There was laughter in the cell next to Fellyra and she looked over to see Ivo in that cell, blood seeping from his head.

"I can't believe you used the plane." Ivo laughed louder. "Idiots. It was a trap! You think I'd just leave it there with no guard. I'm actually surprised you didn't take it earlier. Would have saved us all this trouble."

Fellyra launched at the bars separating them. Her eyes brightened with a golden hue before flashing to an eerie blue. "I'm going to kill you. I will make it so painful; you'll wish I killed you in the command center. If only you know who I really am."

"You won't get that chance." A new voice stated, voice dead. Marx descended the stairs to the cells. He walked over to Ivo's cell and dragged him out, tossing the man to the ground. He then proceeded to pull Fellyra from her cell. She tried to fight back but Marx had access to the serum that Fell kept locked deep within her. Her enhanced strength as a sorcerer and Host to the Darkness could not compare to the strength Marx got from the OM-54 serum. So, Marx effortlessly threw her against the wall.

Then he pulled Ivo to his feet, forcing a pistol into his hand. "Show me." He growled. "Show me how you killed Mei."

Ivo shook his head, his body trembling. "I gave her a choice."

"Show me!" Marx demanded and Ivo raised the gun and pointed it at Fellyra's head. The girl grabbed her shoulder, pain settling in her arm from being thrown against the wall. She just shook her head, fear settling in her stomach.

"Please Marx. This isn't you." Fellyra coughed, her lungs constricting with panic. "It's the serum."

"Even if I didn't have the serum, I would still want you dead. You betrayed me."

Fellyra shook her head. "Please. You said we were family, and now I'm begging you, listen to your sister!

Marx ignored her and turned to Ivo. "Is this how you stood when you killed Mei? She didn't have a choice, did she?"

Ivo nodded. A smirk spread across Marx's face and then his Katana was through Ivo's chest. The man coughed up blood, his eyes wide and the gun fell from his grasp. Then Marx said: "I gave you a choice… the same choice you gave Mei." Ivo dropped to the ground, his body crumbling to the floor like a dead weight.

The boat shook with an explosion and the bottom half began to fill up with water. A fire burned above them, and the metal of the boat screamed loudly. Marx ignored it and turned to Fellyra.

"Just kill me," Fellyra said, her voice growing weaker. "If that will make you feel better, just do it. If that will give you peace, then I will gladly accept my death."

"Kill you?" The man shook his head, the Marx Fellyra once knew was now gone, lost to the serum. "No. That would be mercy. You could have chosen that path with Ivo, but not with me. You cannot die until you have suffered; you will know the same pain I'm going through. And then, after you've lost everything and everyone you loved, then I will think about killing you. I promise."

Marx turned his back to the child and spoke slowly. "I will kill everyone you ever loved. Anyone who you even gave a damn about. I will kill them, be they man, woman, or child. And you will know their deaths will be because of you. Just like Mei's."

"No," Fellyra whispered, a baby boy's face flashed before her eyes, his toothless grin so full of hope and innocence. And then she thought of a certain speedster and his daughter, doing everything they could to protect their city. Then her half-siblings, sheltered and yet to realize the evil in the world. She couldn't let Marx hurt them… Over her dead body. "No!"

Fellyra tapped into that rage she kept hidden deep within her. She tapped into it in order to save the people she held dear. She swung out at Marx and he was barely able to dodge it. She tackled him next, both of them landing in the water. Marx detangled himself from her, grabbed her by her throat. Fellyra gasped for air and then brought her elbow down into the crook of Marx's own arm. A snap echoed off the walls and the man dropped her, cradling his arm to his chest. She swept out with her leg knocking him to the ground before descending on him, throwing punch after punch until his face was bloody. He bucked her off, tossing the girl across the room. She jumped to her feet and they both ran at each other, Fellyra used her powers to push him against the wall of the ship; black chains trapping him to that spot

Fellyra stood above him, his abandoned Katana now in her hand. He must have dropped it when they started fighting.

"What are you going to do? Kill me? We both know you don't have it in you. You can't kill someone you have some kind of connection with, even if they betrayed you." Marx taunted. "But, I can. So, you'll use whatever this power is to keep me here as the boat sinks, and we both know I'll swim to the surface."

"I'll be long gone by then," Fellyra told him.

"I will still find you… no matter where you are in the world." Marx laughed. "And when I do, I'll kill every one of those attachments you have. Everyone you care for. Your brothers, your sister, the speedsters, the Superboy. They will die. You will know pain; you will know that you caused every death around you. I promise."

Fellyra's eyes flashed the icy blue once more and then she struck out with Marx's Katana, impaling him in the eye. Time froze around them, a shock expression on Marx's face and then his body became limp. His sword the only thing keeping him upright.

Dead.

Her breathing evened out and she dropped to her knees. Tears mingled with the sweat and blood. She had to, she kept telling herself. But she didn't want to.

_Fellyra Stark-Starling. Host to the Darkness, Warith al Ghul, No One. Fated to be all alone. What a pitiful existence._

Fellyra looked at both Ivo's and Marx's dead bodies, a sense of defeat lingering in her bones. Everyone… The Quislings were gone… because of her, because she crashed on this island with some notion that she could be a hero. Now she was just another monster with oceans of blood on her hands. Exactly the person she feared she would become.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"_They've promised that dreams can come true but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams too."_

_\- Oscar Wilde_

* * *

Fellyra

The Mountain, Happy Harbor

January 28th, 2013 11:00 EDT

* * *

Fellyra stared at herself in the mirror; her eyes were bloodshot from her lack of sleep and she just looked stress. Nightmares had plagued her throughout the night, and she suspected it was because neither she nor Jay was with Jon. She knew that Superman and Superboy could protect the boy, but she also knew Marx was ruthless, especially after being injected with the OM-54 serum. When she first met him, he was all for killing in order to survive and nothing else. But now, he would kill innocents to get back at the people that wronged him.

Her hand came up to rub under her eyes, missing the blue eyes that were once so identical to her brother's. At least the green hid the golden tint in her eyes a little better than her blue.

"Team members currently in the mountain!" Batman's voice came over an intercom system. "Report to the briefing room!"

There was a moment of silence before he added: "You too Fellyra."

The girl rolled her eyes. So, he wanted her to pay her dues in order to stay in the mountain. She should have at least suspected as much. But she wasn't going to deny the Team her presence, especially since she hadn't met the additions, just the originals.

Fellyra grabbed the tan leather jacket of her bed and pulled it on over her red tank top. She brushed her hair into a ponytail. And then she made her way to the briefing room, she was glad that M'gann had shown her where everything was in the mountain. It helped her find where she needed to go with relative ease. All eyes turned to her when she made her way into the room.

Batman wasn't the only hero in the room, Black Canary and Doctor Fate had shown up too. And the team present in the mountain consisted of Kaldur, M'gann, Wally, Artemis, Zatanna, Tempest and Aquagirl, Beast Boy and the second Robin.

Fellyra frowned, she was a little surprised that Nightwing wasn't there with his mentor and his brother.

_Recognized: Superman 01, Superboy B-04, Nightwing B-02, Jonathan Kent G-04._

Never mind, she thought.

"Fell!" Jon shouted, launching himself at the girl who had to take a step back to stop herself from falling over. Although the young boy hadn't really developed his Kryptonian powers, he did have a bit of the super-strength. The young boy wrapped his arms around the girl's waist and buried his head in her shirt.

Fellyra ran her fingers through his hair, it was getting longer than he usually kept it. She whispered: "How was it?"

Jon nodded and Fellyra knew it was his way of saying good. She could tell he was excited and happy, but he didn't want to express the feelings because he thought of it as a betrayal to her. He was a sweet boy, caring about her feelings over his own, but Fellyra would never feel hurt; as long as Jon was happy, she was happy. The kid deserved some joy in his life. Jay and Fellyra couldn't be his whole world.

"So, you had fun?" She pressed, a grinning spreading over her face.

Jon glared up at her but smiled warmly when he saw her grin. Then he pouted. "You tricked me."

"I did no such thing." The girl joked, pushing the boy back before flicking his forehead. He tossed his hands up to rub at the spot. "I said you were invited and that I would be there to drop you off. I didn't say anything about me staying there."

"That hurt." He mumbled, rubbing at the spot on his head. He grinned up at Fellyra mischievously and Fellyra chuckled.

"I'm sure it did." She said sarcastically.

The two seemed to have noticed that they were being watched, so they looked up. Superman and Nightwing were grinning at them, while Superboy was trying to hide his own. The Team watched them with mild fascination and the older heroes expressed no emotions, well no emotions that anyone else could see.

Fellyra just placed a hand on the boy's head, a sort of comfort. Jon didn't move her hand, but he glanced at everyone in the room. He gave Fell a confused look.

"Why were we called here?" Fellyra smirked at Batman as Superman moved to stand beside the Bat, while Nightwing and Superboy joined the group. "I've got things to do."

Jon scoffed and Batman's eyes narrowed but he ignored the girl's comment.

He tapped on something on the computer in front of him and an image appeared before them. A man with short white hair and glasses framing his gray eyes appeared on the screen. He wore tan slacks and a black shirt which a lab coat mostly covered. He was shaking hands with Sportsmaster as these weird creatures carried some kind of machine onto a truck. The creatures were deformed with gray skin, they looked like they were once humans but now they just had awkward deformities and they were large, as big as a Monsieur Mallah… or Blockbuster.

Fellyra's eyes narrowed and she tensed. She would know that man anywhere, after all, she came to this Earth because of him. And the creatures, they were probably once her friends. "Doctor Hollander." She growled.

Jon looked at the picture of the man and then at Fellyra. "That's Doctor Hollander?!" The boy asked, quite shocked. He had only heard Jay and Fellyra talk about him a select few times and he knew that the man was beyond evil. But he had expected him to be as big as Superman, instead, he looked scrawny and weak. "He doesn't look that strong."

"He's not." Fell hissed. "He was more of the brains of the operations. The Nihils are the real problems."

"You know him?" Batman asked.

"He's one of the reasons I came to this Earth," Fellyra answered, her eyes not leaving the man on the screen. "Someone told me he was here and told me to go and retrieve him. He's a monster."

"He doesn't look too bad," Beast Boy said. "Just looks like he's in the wrong business."

"Do you see those creatures loading the truck?" Fellyra asked and everyone nodded, looking closely at the picture. "They were once humans. Normal humans. Children even. He did that to them. He's taken many lives in the name of his work."

"Experimentations?" Superboy asked.

Fellyra nodded. "He wanted to make Super Soldiers, ones you'd never expect until they have you in their grasp. The first of his experimentations turned into those, the Nihils. Doctor Hollander likes them because they can't think for themselves anymore, they'll do whatever he says, even if it kills them." A shiver went down Jon's spine. _Now_ he could understand the evil that gave Fell nightmares. "But they can't infiltrate cities, politicians, the upper class. So, his next experiments came out somewhat successful. They looked human, they acted human, they had free will. They were perfect for the Super Soldier project. They were super strong, had metahuman powers, and they could think faster. They'd always be 20 steps ahead of you and they were nearly impossible to kill."

"Somewhat successful?" Black Canary asked. "It sounds like they are exactly what he wanted."

"There were not that many, maybe a dozen or so. The experiments were a death sentence for a majority of the people." Fellyra shook her head. "And if you survived the experiments and became one of the couple Super Soldiers…" Fellyra moved her hands to cover Jon's ears. He grabbed at them, trying to pry her hands from his ears. "They died. They were dead within the year."

Everyone's faced paled, or at least the people's face that Fell could see. It became clear that you either became a monster with no free will or a Super Soldier that had a year to live. What a tragic fate.

"Most of them were under the age of 18 too," Fellyra added. "If you needed to know in case you still didn't think he was that evil."

Jon was finally able to dislodge Fellyra's hands from his ears but that was only because she let him. He glared at the teen, mad that he didn't get hear what she had said. It was times like these that he wished he had his father's super hearing. The boy crossed his arms, pouting.

"We want to intercept those trucks," Batman informed everyone. "Now more than ever."

"If Hollander wants it transported, it's probably bad news."

"Then you'll definitely be an asset on this mission." Black Canary said, giving Batman a pointed look. The man sighed in response but nodded.

"Fine by me," Fellyra said. "I had to get him anyways."

"There are three different trucks, each probably guarded by League of Shadow members. You'll be separated into three groups and your main objective is to retrieve those machines." Batman commanded and everyone nodded. "The first group will have Aqualad, Artemis, Robin, and Zatanna. The second group will be Nightwing, Superboy, Aquagirl, and Fellyra. The last group will be Miss Martian, Beast Boy, Kid Flash, and Tempest."

Everyone nodded. Jon looked up at Fellyra who whispered under her breath which caused her outfit to change into her kimono outfit, red mask firmly in place. The mark stood out against her skin and Doctor Fate's eyes narrowed on it. Fellyra was sure he would want to talk to her when she got back; the Lord of Order would definitely want to know if the Host to the Darkness was on the side of the good this time around.

"Can I go?" Jon asked. "I wanna help."

Before anyone could answer him, Fellyra spoke up. "No."

Jon glared at the masked girl. "Why not? I can hold my own, Jay's been training me and some of my powers are starting to come in."

"I don't care. You're too young and don't need to be putting yourself in danger."

Black Canary and Superman gave Batman a look, it was creepy that the girl was practically saying the same thing to Jon that Batman had once said to Nightwing when he was younger. Nightwing tried to hide his smile.

"You were younger than me when you started doing all this." Jon pointed out. "You said you started training as soon as you could walk, and you started working with Adrian when you were my age."

"First of all, look at who my family is. My father only valued strength and if you didn't have that, you were worthless. That is not how Jay and I think." Fellyra crossed her arms. "Second of all, I'm not Adrian. I loved him more than anyone in the world, he was like my brother, but he's made mistakes. He wasn't perfect and he wasn't an angel. He was human and he made mistakes. And when it came down to it, he wished I never had to start doing all this."

The boy glared and then frowned. Fellyra had always spoken highly of Adrian, the stories that she told Jon made him seem like he was some kind of Godsend. He was strong and stubborn; he could do anything. But now Fellyra was talking him down, and it greatly confused the boy. "You can't tell me what to do, you're not my mother and you're definitely not my guardian. Jay would let me go out."

"I _can_ tell you what to do, your mother told me to protect you and sending you out into trouble isn't protecting. Especially with Marx out there. And if you try to sneak out, I'll send you back to Jay like this." Fellyra snapped her fingers to emphasize her point. Jon flinched slightly, startled before his glare came back. "Be a kid, Jon. Don't give away your life for this. Go to school, make friends, pull pranks, at some point fall in love. Hell, have a teenage rebellion, I really don't care. But don't start this so young. This is not a life I would wish on you. Having no childhood is a lonely experience."

Jon looked down, contemplating what she said. Everyone in the room grew silent and frowns settled on the Bat family's face. Bruce was able to give the boys normal lives outside the hero business, he was hellbent on making sure they could be normal. But, it's clear that Fellyra couldn't do that for Jon. She was no more a child than him and when it comes to the real world, she couldn't be Jon's guardian for another 3 years. By stopping him from joining the hero business, that was how she would give him a childhood, that was her way of giving him normalcy.

"If in a few years when your powers fully come in and Jay has taught you more than just simple self-defense, if you still want to do this then I won't stop you." Fellyra patted him on the shoulder and Jon looked up at her. She gave him a small smile. "But experience a childhood first. Once Marx is handled and I send Hollander and my father back to our Earth, I will enjoy that life with you."

"You're planning to give this all up?" Jon asked.

"I need to stop the chaos I started first. I don't want to be Nox forever if I don't have to." Fellyra looked over Jon's shoulder and narrowed her eyes at Doctor Fate. She gave him a small shake of her head, that was barely noticeable. The Lord of Order understood her meaning and closed his eyes in pity, he knew exactly what would befall the Host to the Darkness. "When this is all over, I would like to go home."

Jon stared his protector in the eyes, looking for some kind of deceit. When he couldn't really pinpoint any, he gave her a small nod. "You'll keep me updated? Like you always do?"

Fellyra smiled and tapped the side of Jon's head, he smiled in response. "Always."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"_Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come. Remember everything you have faced, all the battles you have won, and all the fears you have overcome."_

_\- Unknown_

* * *

Nightwing, Superboy, Aquagirl, and Nox

Unknown Location

January 28th, 2013 13:00 EDT

* * *

Nightwing was watching the road with some kind of high-tech binoculars. They had been staking out the road from a mountain a distance away for three hours. The truck hadn't shown up yet and Nox was beginning to wonder if they were on the wrong road. When Nox was about to voice her opinion, the truck came around the bend.

"We've got just League of Shadow assassins in there," Nightwing informed.

"No challenge then." Nox cracked her knuckles before waving her hand around the group. Shadows gathered around them and then suddenly the ground was no longer under their feet, instead, the hard, relentless steel of the truck was under them. All four dropped down to grab the sides of the truck.

"Was this the plan?" Aquagirl called over the wind.

Nox laughed, the wind whipping her hair behind her. "No. I improvised."

Superboy glared at the girl who just smirked. It was clear that she worked alone because she acted impulsively, without regard for the people with her. "If you're so smart, what do we do now?"

Nox didn't answer him directly, instead, she pulled something out of her pouch and threw it at everyone. Small round devices lit up at their feet and a blue magnetic field surrounded them. "_Prohibere!_" She commanded.

The truck lurched to a stop, the machine in the back clearly shifting indicated by the small thud under them. Luckily, the magnetic field stopped them from being thrown from the vehicle. Fellyra just grinned, as she pushed something on the holo-computer at her wrist and the devices came back to her. She pocketed them.

"All you, Supey." She waved at the truck under her.

The teen rolled his eyes at her before shoving his hand through the metal and pulled it apart. Something dark jumped out at them, knocking all four off the truck. Fellyra flipped to land feet first, skidding in the grass. Superboy landed on his back in the pavement, leaving a good size crater in the road, but he was able to jump to his feet and catch Aquagirl. Nightwing was able to do a few flips in order to soften his impact.

A gray creature stood between them and the truck that was taking off. "Thirteen." The Nihil growled, his voice low and gritty.

Nox pulled her katana from its sheath, eyeing the monstrous creature.

"How do we take it down?" Nightwing asked, crouching into a fighting stance.

"Don't bother," Nox said. "Just go after the truck. I'll distract him."

"Are you kidding?" Aquagirl gapped at her. "You can't take it on alone."

"I'm not going to. I know how to distract him, and he only has eyes on me anyways."

The other heroes looked at the Nihil and saw that he was indeed just looking at Fellyra. His lips pulled back in a snarl, pointy teeth evident, and its eyes glowed a frozen blue. Its arm was probably as big as Nox.

The girl said nothing else as she jumped at the creature, the sunlight flickering on the steel of her katana. The Nihil grabbed her blade and Nox gave a little "oomph" as she let go of her sword and slide under its legs. She pushed her hands out and shadows jumped out from the ground and threw the Nihil back, it dropped her sword and skidded across the ground.

"Go!" Nox ordered. "I'll be fine! I know how to deal with them!"

They only contemplated it for a moment before Nightwing pushed a few buttons on his holo-computer. Three motorcycles appeared from the trees, the ones they were supposed to use to attack the truck in the first place. They hopped on and went after their target just as the Nihil stumbled to his feet. He attacked the girl and she dove out of the way, grabbing her sword on the way. She put it back into her sheath and grinned.

"That won't work against you, will it?" Nox flipped to dodge the Nihil's attack. "Impenetrable skin, right?"

The Nihil didn't answer, instead, swiping out with a fist. Nox dropped under it, her eyes flashing blue for a moment as she kicked the Nihil. He flew back, barely able to keep his balance.

_If you let me out, I can find his weakness and we could get this over with. _A voice whispered in the back of her mind.

"No." Nox growled, jumping up to use the Nihil's shoulders as a vault in order to get away from him.

_Why? Afraid you're going to kill him? Not like they aren't already dead, to begin with. _The voice reasoned. _And it wouldn't be the first time you killed someone._

"I don't care. I know you won't give my body back afterward." This time Nox wasn't able to dodge the Nihil's attack and he got a clean kick to her side. She could almost feel a rib or two crack. She stumbled back, holding her ribs.

_Fine. _The voice growled. _But I don't want you to die, it would be a waste to me. Use your Kryptonite. If you just opened your eyes! This Nihil has more Kryptonian genes than anything else. _

Nox blinked and really looked at the Nihil, using her powers to sense him out. She could sense the alien genes in him when she opened herself up to his darkness. She smirked, for once glad for this voice in her head.

She dug the kryptonite out in its lead case and opened it up, presenting it to the creature. It stumbled back, its footing giving out from under him. The Nihils that had more Kryptonian genes tended to be weak to kryptonite, but they didn't get as sick as an actual Kryptonians did. It wasn't poisoning to them, just a strength limiter.

But she didn't need the kryptonite to poison the Nihil, just weaken him where it wouldn't look too suspicious when she kicked his ass. Nox wasn't ready to tell the heroes that she was the only surviving Super Soldier; mostly because she couldn't explain how she lived, and others didn't. All the Super Soldiers started dying around the same time, so Dr. Hollander didn't have time to critique his experiments. Evidently, his lab "mysteriously" burned down around the same time, taking all his serum with it.

Holding the kryptonite tightly in her fist, she allowed some of her rage to come forward as she threw a punch at the Nihil. He flew back a couple of feet away from her. "Sorry. Too much power, I'll tone it down."

The monster growled stumbling to his feet. He sprinted at her and her ribs protested as she rolled away from the speeding monster.

"We got the truck!" Nightwing's voice crackled over the comm.

"Kind of busy here." She grunted, dodging another tackle. He was growing weaker by the minute and she knew that soon her own human strength could take him down.

"We're coming back. Be ready." Nightwing commanded.

"Oh, I'll be ready. And with a friend too." The Nihil turned back to her when she said that. He hissed and came at her once more. These Nihils were idiots, nothing but brutes. And it was her knowledge that would overpower this monster because as he ran at her, she sprung up and used his arms as vaults. She hopped over his head and as she was in the air, she kicked out at his neck. Not enough to kill him, but enough to apply pressure to the pressure point in his neck that causes people to pass out.

Although he was a monster now, there was a human still in there. Being human meant you had human weaknesses, and once he was tired out enough those weaknesses worked just as if they were still human.

He fell to the ground heavily, completely unconscious. Nox snapped her fingers and an inhibitor collar appeared in her hand. She was glad she put it in the shadow realm beforehand, they would have been royally screwed.

Once the inhibitor collar was in place, the truck came flying past them. Nox smirked and placed a hand on her hip, watching as they came to a screeching halt. Nightwing poked his head out the driver's side window. He looked mildly shocked that the Nihil was on the ground, unconscious.

Aquagirl looked out the passenger's side window. She smiled widely. "Guess you could handle him." Superboy opened the back of the truck and jumped out. He gave her a look that was curious.

"Once they are tuckered out and weakened, their normal human weaknesses come out. I just pushed a pressure point." Nox threw the small box containing the kryptonite in the air before catching it once more. "Like I said, no challenge."

XXX

_Recognized: Nightwing B01, Superboy B04, Aquagirl B11, Nox G03, Hostile._

Kid Flash sped over to them and slid to a stop, passing them just a bit. He grinned at Nightwing; his arms crossed. "We won! Actually, everyone successfully finished their mission before you four."

"We ran into trouble." Nightwing pointed over his shoulder. Superboy came up behind him first, holding the box with the machine on his shoulder. The Aquagirl came up and shook her head at the redhead and laughed good-naturedly. Nox came in last with some kind of magic chain wrapped around this huge creature. It struggled against the magic but Nox just kept leading it to the briefing room.

"Man!" She sighed. "I knew you Nihils lack intelligence, but I thought you would at least understand when I told you that that inhibitor collar makes you just like any human. Especially after I told you ten times."

The creature snarled at her, revealing his pointed teeth. "I… kill you."

"Oh! It speaks!" Nox smirked as they came upon the league members and the Team. Their jaws practically dropped when they saw the huge creature being led by the small girl. "I was starting to believe that you could only say 'thirteen'."

"My orders… my orders were to bring you back alive and help the Shadows escape." The creature forced out, his voice was becoming clearer with each word and Nox narrowed her eyes at it. This was the first Nihil that she ever heard talk so well. "But I decided that I want to kill you now."

Nox laughed at his words, it was kind of a creepy and condescending laugh. "You wouldn't be the first to try. I'm still alive though. And last time I checked; I won that fight."

"Not a fair fight." It growled, its voice sounding childish. "You cheated."

"Cheated? I just used your weakness against you; all is fair in a street fight and we were literally in a street… well, the road." The girl was becoming tense and took a few steps back, a bit of worry clear on her face. The creature's gray skin was starting to take on an orange tint and he was shaking, with—fear?

"Who taught you that?" The Nihil breath out each word, like his body couldn't get enough air. "Adrian? Jay? Marx? Or… or was it _him_? You were born for this after all."

Nox glared.

"What's happening?" Black Canary asked as the Nihil's skin turned red. "What's happening to him?"

Sadness fell over the Nihil's face as his body started shaking uncontrollably. It was at that moment, he looked like no more than a child; his body was becoming smaller and his eyes changed into a light shade of hazel. He looked like he was in so much pain and his eyes were begging. "Kill—kill me. Please."

Everyone was shocked by the child's voice that came out of the creature; more so shocked that it was now begging for death when it was just threatening Nox before. No one in this room would even think about killing him, it doesn't matter that he was evil. So why did he bother asking?

The creature looked right at Nox. "Please. The pain. Unbearable. You know… already dead, venom keeping body moving. Krotan awakens the brain. But I already died."

Nox shook her head. The red had now spread into his eyes and black blood ran out of his nose and eyes. "I can't."

"Why carry sword then?" The Nihil dropped to his knees.

"As a memory."

The Nihil smiled sadly, and he collapsed to the ground. The last words he uttered were: "I did it… for mom." The creature was now gone, replaced by a boy no older than ten, his eyes wide and his face frozen with fear. Those eyes didn't see anymore, they hadn't for a long time.

Batman and Black Canary ran over to the boy, checking his pulse and trying to bring him back. The black blood had made stained tracks down his face.

"You can't save him." Nox said and everyone glared at her. How could she not want to save a child? She was just telling Jon to be a child a couple of hours ago, and here she was not even trying to give a child, no older than Jon, a life. "He died during the experimentation. Nihils are pretty much zombies… He's been dead for well over five years."

The tension in the room was so thick, so suffocating. Everyone was trying to process this new information. Were all the Nihils dead children? Why didn't anyone save them?

Batman stood up but Black Canary remained next to the boy, tears gathering in her eyes. Nox slowly walked over to the body and kneeled down. She looked over the boy; she didn't recognize him, so he definitely wasn't with her group. He either came before or after her, but she still understood the pain that he experienced no matter what group she was in.

"Joining the Genesis Project to save your mom; that's very honorable, I bet she would have been proud," Fellyra whispered and lifted her hand slowly to shut the boy's eyes. He looked peaceful like he was just sleeping. "Vestra pugna est super."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"_The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for"_

_\- Bob Marley_

* * *

Fellyra

The Mountain, Happy Harbor

January 28th, 2013 16:00 EDT

* * *

"He probably would have been the same age as me… If he hadn't gotten himself involved with the Genesis Project." They were still in the briefing room, or at least the original Team members and Fellyra. Black Canary and Doctor Fate were too but they stood off to the side. Fellyra was staring at the picture that was the reason they were on that mission, to begin with; she wasn't really seeing though. After the League members left to move the boy's body, Fellyra had pulled up the picture. Now she just sat there and stared at it. "Wonder what he was like before. Wish I knew his name, I could have found his mother."

"And tell her what?" Artemis asked. "I don't think a mother would want to know that her son became a monster and was killed because of it."

Fellyra didn't look away from the screen, eyes flickering over the image. "Better than never knowing what happened."

The room fell silent once more at her words. No one really knew what to do in the situation. They succeeded in their mission, but it felt like they failed. According to Fellyra, all the Nihils are just the dead walking, but how could she be so sure? She told them that she was sent here to retrieve Doctor Hollander, and yet she spoke about this whole situation like she knew everything, as if she experienced it first-hand.

Nightwing was across the room talking to Kaldur in a hushed tone. They both were expressing their suspicion about Fellyra. She was here for more than what she said; and Doctor Fate must have had some idea about it. He watched her constantly like she was going to become rabid or something. Fate was all-knowing; there was no way that Fellyra could hide anything from him. If only Nightwing or Kaldur could just convince him to tell them what he knew.

"_I could read her mind." _M'gann told the whole Team telepathically. "_I'm sure we're all suspicious about her since we experienced the whole "Red Arrow" incident. Plus, my uncle told me that when he was in Jon's mind, she was only around a little bit. That she always disappeared, so we can't really trust Jon's faith in her."_

_ "Yes. Jon may be good a kid, but he is biased when it comes to Fellyra." _Kaldur added. "_He worships her because he sees her as this strong hero that saved him when his father couldn't." _

_ "And the way she talks like she's ready for this Darkness to overcome her. And she said her father was a horrible man." _Artemis said; she glanced over at Fellyra who still hadn't moved. _"That Jay guy didn't sound so gung-ho about her either, and he actually knows her."_

_ "You shouldn't really judge her by her family Artie." _Nightwing gave each person on the Team his best batglare. He had perfected it while he was away, and it unnerved his friends a bit. _"And we agreed that you would never read an ally's mind without their permission. As of right now, she isn't our enemy"_

Connor nodded and crossed his arms. He hated when conversations came up about reading someone's mind without their knowledge. No one on the Team knew what that felt like so they couldn't understand. _"I agree with Nightwing. Just because we don't know her, doesn't mean we can just invade her mind. And it's not like we've told her anything about ourselves."_

_ "She knows everything about us!" _Artemis and Wally said at the same time. Nightwing was honestly shocked that his best friend wasn't agreeing with him on this. Guess his relationship mattered more with Artemis than it did with him.

_"And she hasn't told anyone. She even trusted us with her and Jon's identity, we can't break her trust." _Nightwing protested. If he was with the Titans, they would have seen his reasoning as valid. They knew what it was like to trust an ally even when that ally did everything to give them a reason not to.

_"How about we put it to a vote then." _Kaldur offered, he didn't meet Nightwing's eyes though. _"We're just trying to protect everyone, my friend."_

Nightwing huffed, crossing his arms. _"My vote is no."_

_ "No,"_ Connor said.

_"Yes,"_ Artemis said, Nightwing turned his batglare up a notch and looked at Artemis. Seriously? Artemis's whole family were villains at some point, she should have empathized with Fellyra's plight. But no, the girl looked determined to not trust Fellyra.

M'gann nodded slightly, it was her idea after all. But she felt like Nightwing was losing his faith in them by the second.

_"Yes!" _Wally said. _"We don't need another mole situation."_

Everyone looked at Kaldur, his vote would either decide this whole plan or put it into a stalemate with no tiebreaker. At least, not unless they got the other Young Justice members together and found out how they would vote. Nightwing hoped Kaldur would say no; he knew that he could at least convince Robin, Batgirl, and Beast Boy to say no. If he was lucky, Zatanna and Rocket too. Maybe the others would at least see his point.

_"Yes," _Kaldur said and Nightwing turned away from them, walking out of the briefing room. He was pissed.

_"I don't want to be a part of this," _Nightwing shouted at them through the mind link. _"You can deal with the repercussions by yourselves." _

Fellyra had turned her head slightly to watch him stomp off but then looked back at the screen, her brows frowning in concentration.

_"Go ahead M'gann."_ Kaldur encouraged and she nodded back, her eyes turning green.

Nobody noticed when Fellyra's shoulders tensed and M'gann didn't have time to react when a dark presence moved forward. It felt nothing like Fellyra, it almost felt like another person. A male's laugh echoed through the mind link. _"Looks like we've got visitors, Killer. I guess we're having a party and here I am without my monkey suit."_

"STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!" Fellyra yelled and M'gann was tossed from her mind, well it's not like she ever got through to her memories or thoughts. All she saw was complete darkness, the very edges of her mindscape.

M'gann stumbled backward and the Team turned to see that Fellyra had jumped to her feet, icy blue eyes glaring back at them. Eyes that eerily reminded them of the Nihil's, and what was worse, Fellyra's eyes were a golden green before. It was chilling.

Black Canary and Doctor Fate had moved forward when Fellyra had jumped up. They seemed ready to stop any fight that might happen, and Fellyra was acutely aware that Doctor Fate would be her sparring partner in such a situation.

The dark conscious that they had felt when M'gann tried to look into Fellyra's, brushed against their mind link once. The slightest of presence but still lingering. _"Oh! What fun! Go get 'em, Killer."_

Fellyra's icy eyes stared at them and they could almost feel the rage radiating off her. She was tense and her jaw was clenched; this was a new side they saw of the girl, and it scared them more than Batman. "Do you have any regard for someone's privacy; or do you Martians know no boundaries?" Fellyra growled, her voice as cold as her eyes.

"No, I—" M'gann fumbled with what to say.

"You what?" Fellyra seethed. "You just wanted to invade my mind because you're curious? Or that 'Fellyra won't mind because we can act like I was never there'?'"

"Woah! Don't blame M'gann, we are all to blame. We can't trust you if we know nothing about you." Wally stepped in front of M'gann as if to protect her from Fellyra's anger. "We've had a situation with a spy before, we just had to make sure."

"I didn't agree." Connor muttered and turned his head when Wally gave him a 'shut up' look.

"Is that what you think I am? A spy? For Hollander?" The thought of being a spy seemed to anger her even more if that was even possible. "You've just witnessed what kind of monster he is. Do you think that lowly of me?"

"You mentioned that your family history wasn't that good…" Artemis started but Fellyra cut her off.

"Last time I checked your father is in that picture, not mine. If I'm evil because of who my father is, then so are you!" Fellyra's fist clenched at her side, shaking slightly.

"Artemis has proven herself as an ally." Kaldur intervened. "She has gained our trust, but you haven't given us any reason to trust you."

"I haven't given you any reason not to! You have to give trust to get trust and I've done a lot more than you to at least earn a little more trust!" Fellyra's eyes narrowed and Black Canary stepped forward to try to intervene. "I would never work with that bastard! He's killed everyone I've ever loved! He's killed the first people I've ever thought of as family! He deserves what's coming to him!"

Batman and Superman ran into the room. They heard the commotion as they were coming back and now, they were on the defense. Someone could be attacking the mountain… but that's not what was actually happening. Instead, they arrived in the middle of a heated argument; Young Justice on one side, Fellyra on the other, and Black Canary playing mediator with her hands held out as if to ward them off. They saw that Fellyra was beyond angry, her eyes almost glowing a raging blue. Wait, blue?

The girl didn't notice that they entered the room, or at least she didn't acknowledge them as the others did. She looked like she was ready for a fight; if anyone even came near her, she'd probably break them. And she never turned her eyes towards the newcomers. No, you never take your eyes off the threat, something that Batman could tell was beaten into her. But why was Young Justice a threat to her? He wondered.

As Batman was about to ask what the hell was going on, Jon pushed pass him and Superman. The Blue Boy Scout tried to stop the boy, fearing that Fellyra would hurt him in her fit of rage. But the boy slipped right pass, running directly up to the girl and grabbing her sleeve.

"Please stop Fell!" He cried. "You have to control the Rage. You've said it yourself that if you snapped then there was no coming back; like Marx. I understand that your angry, but it's not worth losing who you are."

"Move away, Jon." The girl hissed out from gritted teeth. "I don't know if I can control myself right now. I don't want to hurt you."

"You can control it! You always have and that fight has made you so much stronger."  
Jon tugged on her sleeve, trying to force her to look at him. To actually see him. Fellyra didn't really acknowledge him, the blue in her eyes overcoming whatever color was there before. "I know who you are in your bones, Fell! You're the type of person to run into a burning building in order to save a toddler and his mother. You're the type of person that protects that boy no matter what and finds him somewhere he will be safe and loved. The type of person who would try to save a person who anyone else in your shoes would have given up on. That's who you are! Not this Rage, not what Hollander tried to make you."

Fellyra looked down at the boy, a frown crossing her face. He saw a flicker of her in there and he took his chance.

"It's harder now, I get it. But you didn't let it control you when you came out; you fought your way back to the light!" The boy smiled sadly when he saw shock cross the girl's face. She understood what he was implying but wasn't sure if he actually knew what he was talking about. "I know, Fellyra. It must have been hard, but you survived it and you didn't let it consume you. Don't let it now. Please."

Fellyra took a deep breath and then gave the boy a small nod, she didn't trust herself to speak.

Jon turned to the heroes and held his arms out as if he was strong enough to protect Fellyra. He looked at them like he knew what they had discussed in the mind link, and it was proven he did when he said: "There were many times where Fellyra left me with Jay and I didn't get to see her. She did it to protect me. She left so I would be safe, but she was always there when it mattered when I needed her. So, don't judge her on what you saw in my memories. The past doesn't define who we are now, not if we've changed."

"How'd you know?" Fellyra groaned, her head tilted back and her arm covering her eyes. She looked like she was in pain.

"The same way I always know you're in trouble." Jon turned to Fellyra and she looked down at him, her eyes golden-green once more. He tapped his head with a smile. "You were listening in, too right? Well, you heard them because they were practically shouting it and any telepath would have picked it up. You wanted to test them, to see if we could trust them."

The Team looked at each other shocked. Were they really projecting their mental conversation?

"It's a failsafe, right? Because you need to know that I'll be safe if anything were to happen to you since I wouldn't be able to return to Jay with you gone." Jon frowned. "But why do you always have some kind of contingency plan just in case you die? Why do you always think you're going to die?"

Fellyra pursed her lips and looked away, her body still shaking with the lingering rage. She was on the edge, one that she could fall off at any time. She was ashamed that she let the rage consumed her like that; she even knew that the Team might attempt to read her mind, but she at least thought that they would see how much of a monster Hollander was and know that she couldn't be working with him.

"It's the only kind of life I knew," Fellyra whispered. "I've faced death every day of my life and I didn't fear it. But now I have to make sure you are safe and happy. My biggest fear is you getting hurt and it's all because of me."

Jon nodded slowly and he looked like he was ready to cry. "I know. Jay told me what happened to Holden. But you can't blame yourself for his death. You've told me once that we can't regret the decisions other people make because they chose their path, knowing the outcome. Holden knew who Marx was and he still went out to face him. It wasn't your fault."

Fellyra's jaw clenched and everyone in the room became tense. Then Fellyra's face went pale, but she didn't say anything.

"I'll go back to Jay," Jon said and Fellyra looked at him sharply. "Marx will come after me to hurt you. So, I'll go back because it will help you. I'll miss you and will worry about you. But I'm going to live that life you want me to live; I'll do it all for you, I'll wait for you until you're done with everything here. Let me protect you this time."

Fellyra smiled at the boy. She was so proud of him at that moment, not because he was doing what she demanded, but because he was so strong. And so brave. Not even Jay would come near her when she was in a rage like that, and he had powers. But Jon did it knowing that his powers were weak compared to her, he did it to save her from herself. And now he was making a selfless decision, one that Fellyra couldn't force herself to make.

Jon's eyes widened as he looked up at her. Her ears were ringing, and his voice was muffled so that she couldn't hear what he was saying. She saw his lips moving but couldn't focus long enough to understand what he said. Then the world tilted around her and it was almost like there were two Jon's.

The boy yelled something, but it fell on deaf ears. So, instead, he brought his hand up to his face and touched just under his nose, like he was wiping something away. Fellyra mimicked him, and her hand came away wet, black blood coating her fingers. This had never happened to her before, but she's seen it enough time to be prepared when the pain rushed through her. But she was still brought to her knees by the waves of fire that ran through her blood, a scream almost escaping her lips. She knew what would happen next but knew unconsciousness would take her first.

'_Is it scary? Dying, I mean.' A small Fellyra, barely seven, looked up at the 17-year-old. He had golden hair that was styled in a "gentleman's haircut", kind of like James Dean's, and he had kind blue eyes. Blue was his original color, his irises never affected by the serum. He was strong with broad shoulders and an athletic body. His skin was sun-kissed from always being out in the field. But he was gentle, kind to his very core._

_ Adrian._

_ 'What brought that up, little one?' Adrian laughed and Fellyra answered him with a shrug. 'I wouldn't know, I'm still alive.'_

_ 'Are you afraid of it?' Her voice was filled with all the curiosity a child could have. She started swinging her legs back and forth, becoming restless just sitting on the fence and waiting. Adrian leaned against it next to her, the wood only coming to his hip. The scene was peaceful, at least it was until you saw the bow, quiver of arrows, and sword at Adrian's feet and the sword Fellyra cradled in her lap. Death would come to them eventually; after all, they lived dangerous lives._

_ 'Not really. We all die eventually, some faster than others.' Adrian smiled at the girl and ruffled her hair. 'I fear for the ones that have to keep going when we're gone. That's scarier than death.'_


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"_The people and the friends that we have lost, or the dreams that have faded… Never forget them"_

_\- Final Fantasy X_

* * *

Fellyra

The Mountain, Happy Harbor

February 2nd, 2013 12:00 EDT

* * *

_"Hey, Kid. I think you have something of mine." A teen with golden hair said as he held out his hand. His hair was a bit longer and he smirked at the little girl that clutched his wallet against her chest. She wore odd clothes that he had never seen in the city before. Her outfit was a green vest with black hems, a white undershirt, and a black sash. She had on black leggings and combat boots; she almost looked regal and oddly familiar._

_ The girl backed up against the alley wall, her eyes narrowed at the man. Could she take him?_

_ The teen smiled softly and pulled out his hand that he was hiding behind his back. Fellyra flinched back but froze when she saw what was in his hand. An apple._

_ "It's not much, but it's a fair trade." The teen laughed when he saw Fellyra's surprised face. "There isn't much in my wallet, Little One. Just my ID and maybe a couple of dollars in cash, but you keep those if you need them."_

_ Fellyra reached for the apple and replaced it with the man's wallet. She took a large bite out of it and sighed, happily. The teen smiled and then held out his hand once more. Fellyra cocked her head looking at it questioningly. _

_ "My name is Adrian Winters." He gestured with his eyes to the outstretched hand. "You shake it and introduce yourself."_

_ "I know what I'm supposed to do." The girl finally spoke up, she had a little too much snark in her little body. She placed her hand in his hand anyways. "Fellyra."_

_ "Fellyra? Fellyra what? You don't have a last name?"_

_ The little girl shook her head. "I am no one so I don't have a family name to use."_

_ "No one, huh?" Adrian held his chin as he thought. "Then how about Fellyra Outis? It's Greek for 'no one'."_

_ The girl smiled softly. "I know. Odysseus used it to trick Polyphemus so that the other Cyclops wouldn't come. I've heard the story."_

_ "Smart aren't ya?" Adrian chuckled when the girl just smirked. Yeah, too much snark for her age. "And a trickster too, just like Odysseus. You nicked my wallet with a few parlor tricks. I was totally distracted."_

_ "Adrian! Are you fighting little girls now? Is that all you can handle?" A man with spiky red hair called from the mouth of the alley. Another man with golden hair like Adrian's came up behind the redhead._

_ "We're not here to pick up strays." He said._

_ "I know!" Adrian shouted back and then he turned to the little girl. "Careful out there. Not everyone is as nice as me to a thief like you."_

_ Fellyra stuck out her tongue. She turned away from him, jumping onto a garbage bin and then grabbing the fire escape right above her. "I could have taken you! I'm stronger than I look." With that, the little girl disappeared into the shadows and Adrian took off with his comrades, chuckling softly. They would meet again… and soon._

XXX

Fellyra opened her eyes slowly, the lights blinding her. She moved her arm to cover her eyes and she felt tubes move against it. She could feel the plastic mask on her face giving her air and the heart monitor tabs strategically placed on her body, the steady beeping calming. She was in the med bay… again. At least this time she didn't freak out.

The light moved away from her and she was able to move her arm to look around. Black Canary was the first one she saw since the woman was standing right next to her bed. Then her eyes traveled over the Leaguers and two Team members: Batman, Superman, Doctor Fate, Superboy, and Nightwing. Jon was on the other side of her bed, his head resting on his arms and he was snoring lightly.

"I guess I didn't die. Again." She said as she pulled the mask away from her face. Her voice sounded strangely disappointed. "Awesome."

Jon stirred but didn't wake up. Good, he didn't need to hear any of this.

"What happened?" Batman growled.

Black Canary turned to him with a glare. "She's been unconscious for almost five whole days. I don't think she's up to answering questions, she's still weak."

"I already gave you the gist of what happened, Batman," Nightwing told his mentor, crossing his arms. "It was the Team's fault and I can understand her reaction."

"I agree," Superboy added. "We invaded her mind without her permission, called her a spy even though she helped us get the tech and trusted us with her identity, and the Team tried to act like they didn't do anything wrong. I would say we are more at fault than she is; I would have acted the same way if I suddenly felt another presence in my mind."

Nightwing glared at Batman. "You told me once that everyone is entitled to their own secret identities. Fellyra is too."

Fellyra remained silent, trying to clear the fog out of her brain. She was starting to remember what happened; she had overheard the mental conversation the Team had about reading her mind, and she acted like she didn't know what was going on. She wanted to see if they would go through with it, or if they would trust her. Fellyra didn't really like what they chose, she was so angry that they would compare her to Hollander and that stupid voice was so close to the surface that she couldn't reign in the Rage. The serum's rage; it had been a long time since she let it overcome her like that and at that time she killed someone because of it. Or she attempted to.

The girl groaned and threw her arm over her eyes once more. But even after she had that adverse reaction to the serum it didn't kill her, not like it did the other Super Soldiers. Why? Why could she outlive it and not the others?

"We called it the Rage," Fellyra mumbled but didn't move her arm. "It's self-explanatory really."

"We?" Batman prompted.

"The Super Soldiers," Fellyra said, softly. "Some of us were able to fight against the Rage, others gave in to it and they were never the same. And then the other serums didn't help either."

"You said all the Super Soldiers died a year after they were made." Batman accused.

"'Made' is kind of rude. You say it as if we were made in test tubes or something; hate to tell you but we were as human as you are." Fellyra said, removing her arm from her eyes and looking at the ceiling blankly. "They did all die, all but one. Lucky number thirteen."

The teen sneered, memories coming and going from her head. "Sometimes I wish the Super Soldier Serum had killed me."

The room went silent and Fellyra could almost feel the pitying look that they gave her. She hated it. She hated being pitied like she was some kind of weak child. Since the day she was born she was trained by the deadliest of assassins and by the greatest of heroes. She got the name _Zil _because she was so deadly, she was chosen as the heir to the demon because of the things she could do even before the Darkness. But these heroes didn't know that, and she couldn't just tell them either.

Batman finally decided to speak up, choosing to ignore the girl's comment in order for the girl not to feel more uncomfortable then she probably already was. He had a feeling that Fellyra only made the comment because she was barely awake. "What was in the Super Soldier Serum?"

"A lot of different things," Fellyra said quietly. She didn't look like she wanted to continue but knew that Batman would want to know everything. She was sure her actions hadn't gained her any trust from the Dark Knight if anything he was warier of her. Which he had every right to be, but he didn't actually know that. "The Rage is a side effect from the OM-54 serum. It gives a person enhanced strength, senses, stamina, and endurance that is beyond what a normal human is capable of doing. Our reflexes and agility are at their peak and we have rapid cellular regeneration. The Super Soldiers could heal from broken bones in a matter of days, and sometimes hours."

"Is that how you were able to take down the Nihil?" Superboy asked.

"Yes and no," Fellyra answered. "At first I did until I found out what his particular weakness was."

"What else does the Super Soldier Serum have in it and what does it do?" Black Canary asked gently. She didn't want Fellyra to think she was prying, but considering that there was a successful Super Soldier and that the man who created them was on this Earth was worrisome. And she was sure she wasn't the only person in the room thinking that this Doctor Hollander was going to try his experiments again. She was also sure that Fellyra believed that this was an extreme possibility and that's why she was here.

"There was the Roanoke Drug too. It's the one that allows the Super Soldiers to think faster and learn at an incredible pace, it made people who were mediocre thinkers at best into geniuses. I don't know the science behind it, something about neurons or something." Fellyra's brows scrunched up, trying to figure out if there was more to tell them about the drug. "I don't think it has a counterpart on this Earth, but the OM-54 is almost exactly like the serum that created someone like Slade Wilson here. It was the same concept at least."

Fellyra looked down at Jon once more, he looked so peaceful and she felt bad for putting him through all this. If it weren't for her, he would have had a normal and happy life. But she also knew that without her, he'd be dead or kidnapped by the villains that killed his parents.

"The last part of the Super Soldier Serum was something that we just called the Meta-human gene. Even if you did not have the potential of being a Meta-human, you could still develop powers. It all depended on who you are."

"You have other abilities?" Superboy asked, and then he thought about what he asked and scowled. "Besides the whole magic thing. And all that enhanced stuff."

Fellyra chuckled, understanding Superboy's scowl. She was a bit "overpowered" so to speak, but the side effects far outweigh the powers given to her. The Meta-human gene weakened and eroded the mind, especially if your DNA wasn't equipped to be a meta. The Roanoke Drug kills the nervous system among other things; it slowly takes away hearing, seeing, and even the ability to feel. And the OM-54 made you mad, crazy mad. The Rage takes over and you know nothing else but revenge and death. It changes who you are. Someone like Batman with an incredible moral code could turn into a serial killer under the drug's Rage. The power wasn't worth the burden.

"I do." Fellyra sat up with the help of Black Canary. She was already feeling a lot better and you would have never known that she was in a partial coma for five days. "But… my DNA did not hold the make-up originally to be a meta." At the confused looks from the younger heroes, mostly Superboy, she sighed and explained further. "In order to have a Meta ability, your DNA has to have a recessive make-up that only appears during certain circumstances. Take Flash and Kid Flash as an example. In order for them to be a speedster they had to have the speedster make-up already in them and then when their projects failed, they gained their abilities."

Fellyra watched to see if her explanation was good enough, and when she was satisfied, she continued. "Since I had the ability to use magic like my mother, my DNA didn't have room to have this Meta make-up. So, they practically forced abilities on me that my body can't really endure as much. I only use my Meta abilities when it is absolutely necessary. If I use a little bit at a time, then my body and mind can heal itself. If I use it too much, then even my Rapid Cellular Regeneration isn't enough to save me."

The group nodded, well beside Doctor Fate who just watched on, a silent figure against the wall. Black Canary placed a hand on Fellyra's shoulder, and the girl looked up into the woman's kind eyes. "Can you tell us what these abilities are?"

"It was different for every Super Soldier… of course, you probably figured that. We used to think that the powers appeared based on a person's personality." Fellyra laughed, remembering when she and Adrian had brought it up to the other Super Soldiers. They were appalled and wanted to know if they were making fun of them. In a way they were. "My particular abilities are actually a great addition to my magic if I could use them that is. I can Astral Project, use telepathy, and I have Pathokinesis… it's the power to manipulate emotions."

"Telepathy? Is that how you knew what the Team was going to do?" Batman asked. He chose to ignore the manipulate emotions power because she wouldn't have told the heroes about that particular power if she did not trust them.

Fellyra nodded. "They were practically screaming it towards me, so I just picked it up. I didn't think they'd actually go through with. And then when they compared me to Hollander, well I—"

She fell silent leaving the sentence to linger in the air. She went into that Rage; not because she found out that the Team didn't trust her, but because she never wanted to be seen as a spy for someone as despicable as Doctor Hollander. Batman realized this right away.

"What about that other voice in your head we encountered?" Superboy asked, and everyone looked at him confused. Doctor Fate, however, stiffened, his eyes narrowing behind his golden mask. "Even though I didn't agree with the Team, I was a part of the mental link and there was another voice; not any of ours or yours."

"Voice?" Fellyra was generally confused, the whole incident was kind of a blur so she couldn't remember exactly what was said or done. And she didn't think the Team would have been able to hear him.

"Yeah." Superboy crossed his arms and looked at everyone directly, before looking at Fellyra. "It—He—Whatever it was. As soon as M'gann brushed against your mind, another voice came through, saying something like 'looks like we've got visitors, Killer'."

Fellyra tensed, her eyes going wide. Nobody missed the change in the girl. She stared at the bedsheet that covers her legs, a bit in shock. Then her eyes narrowed in anger. "Killer, huh?"


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"_I don't live in darkness; Darkness lives in me."_

_\- Warna De Silva_

* * *

Fellyra

The Mountain, Happy Harbor

February 2nd, 2013 12:30 EDT

* * *

Doctor Fate pushed away from the wall and said something for the first time since... since Fellyra met him actually. The Lord of Order was oddly silent on how dangerous the Host to the Darkness could be. But all he said was: "Good or bad?"

Fellyra was taken off guard by the Lord of Order's question and she was about to ask how he didn't know the answer. But then she stopped. This wasn't her Earth, the history that she was taught wasn't the same as this Earth's. He didn't know because he couldn't know if he's been on this Earth for a century. And this might have sounded crazy, but she began to laugh.

Her laugh sent a chill down some of the heroes' spine. It was a deranged laugh as if she finally just snapped. The question gave her no reason to laugh, but here she was basically losing it in the med bay.

"What's so funny?" Superman asked.

"I keep forgetting that this isn't my earth," Fellyra laughed, wiping tears from her eyes. "If it was and Doctor Fate asked that question, people would think he was crazy. He'd probably be taken to be evaluated for both his education and his sanity."

"And why is that?" Batman asked.

"Because everyone on my Earth knows that the answer to that question is bad, extremely bad," Fellyra said, growing serious. She then looked directly at Doctor Fate; all mirth went in an instant. "My predecessor is the worst of the worst. He's the main reason that we no longer have heroes and he isn't happy that he died."

Doctor Fate nodded. "So, is he always at the forefront?"

"No." Fellyra shook her head, "I'm usually pretty good at keeping him in a cage, but he must have tagged along with the Rage. He definitely wants to get out."

"Predecessor? What does this have to do with the voice Superboy was talking about?" Nightwing asked.

Fellyra fell quiet, lost in thought. So, it was Doctor Fate that answered the teen. "The Host to the Darkness has it a lot harder than the Host to the Light, who is the Darkness's other half; like Klarion is for me. A Host like Fellyra has to deal with all the prior Hosts to the Darkness; their souls are connected to the power until they are released."

"And one of those Predecessors was evil and is trying to take control." Black Canary stated. She looked at Fellyra who had finally registered that they were having a conversation about her. "Why don't you release him then?"

"That's not how it works," Fellyra informed her. "The predecessor has to choose to be released. Otherwise, I wouldn't have to worry."

"And what about this Host to the Light?" Batman asked.

"It's been missing for decades. I suspect it's in another universe"

"This is so complicated." Superman sighed and Fellyra just grinned. "But not all the Hosts to the Darkness are evil, this particular one is though."

Fellyra nodded and Doctor Fate said: "The Darkness is just the personification of Dark Magic; the Host is so much stronger than the Magicians that can use it, they are the ones that grant it. Someone like John Constantine can have his powers stripped if the Host so chooses."

"That's why my predecessor was able to take out so many heroes," Fellyra added. "Summoning demons also helps to take over the world."

"You can summon demons?" Nightwing asked.

"And control them if I need to."

"Cool."

Fellyra just laughed, that was definitely not the first thing people say about her powers. They automatically assumed she was evil because they believed the Darkness to be evil. But not all darkness is bad, just like not all light is good.

* * *

Jonathan Kent

The Mountain, Happy Harbor

February 9th, 2013 14:00 EDT

* * *

Fellyra allowed herself a week to fully recuperate after her little incident, and she avoided the Mountain and all heroes the whole time. As soon as they had left her to rest in the med-bay, she woke Jon up and told him she was heading out. He understood that she needed time alone, so he agreed to wait for her at the Mountain. After that, Fellyra disappeared, neither in Gotham nor any other hero's city. Nobody knew what she was doing but Jon suspected it had to do with either Marx or Doctor Hollander. The former being the best guess since Doctor Hollander was useless without his machines and the OM-54 serum.

Jon hated it when Fellyra took off without telling him where she was going. But there was nothing he could do about it when Fellyra wanted to disappear no one would find her, not even the World's Greatest Detective.

So, now he sat in the briefing room, reading a book in the corner with Krypto laying against his outstretched legs while the Team, Batman and Black Canary discussed training. Every now and again he glared over his book at them; some of the Team members getting nervous by his constant stares.

_Recognized: Nox G03._

At the computer's announcement, Jon jumped up and dropped his book. The other people in the room turned to look at the door. The young Kryptonian ran to the door to meet Fellyra as he heard her footsteps walking down the hall; when the door opened with a light 'swish' noise, Jon froze and his face paled.

Fellyra entered the room but she wasn't wearing her typical Nox uniform. No, instead what she wore made Jon's blood run cold; it was an outfit he hadn't seen her in since she locked up Marx. The clothes were a loose-fitting fabric that was typically worn by—well the League of Shadows. Her outfit was a white tunic that was covered by a green vest with black hems, a black sash holding it closed around her waist. She wore her typical Kevlar enhanced leggings, along with black leather combat boots. A black mask covered her eyes and she was fiddling with the holo-computer at her wrist as she walked in. And although Jon couldn't see any weapons, he knew they were easily accessible.

"Why are you wearing that?" Jon asked, his voice low and kind of frightened. He took a slight step back towards the heroes, afraid that his pseudo-sister may have lost to the Rage when she was gone. He knew enough from Jay to know that Fellyra had a dark past, and this was a clear indicator that she might have reverted back to it.

Fellyra looked up at him, an eyebrow raised slightly above her mask, and Jon could almost feel her rolling her eyes at him. "I told you I was taking you home today."

"Yeah, but why do you have to dress—" Jon wasn't sure how to finish his sentence without outing the girl. He chose to finish with, "—Like the Shadow?"

"Because Nox doesn't exist on our Earth." She answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Then she saw Jon's fear and she smiled softly. "Don't worry, Super Brat. I'm going to take you home then I'm going to meet with Vincent really quick, visit my family, and then go to Holden's and Adrian's graves. I don't want to be noticed as Fellyra and people won't mess with the Shadow."

Jon sighed and his shoulder's sagged in relief. "Are you feeling nostalgic or something?"

"Or something," She said, walking up next to the boy and tousling his hair. Jon frowned but nodded anyway. Fellyra wasn't telling him something, trying to protect him probably. And now he didn't want to leave her alone in this world; since he's been here, he was her only voice of reason. "Changing your mind?"

Jon shrugged. "I'm worried."

"About what?"

"Being away from you, you're the closest thing I have to family and I feel like if I leave now, I'll never see you again."

Fellyra smiled at him reassuringly and handed him some sort of communicator. He gave her a questioning look as if to ask 'what?'. "All you have to do is press that black button and some friends of mine will come and check on me for you."

"Who?"

"Probably Kaden and Austin... Scratch that, Kaden will _definately _show."

Jon's jaw dropped, remembering the stories Fellyra told him about them. She said they were strong and unbelievably good; loyal friends. But these friends of Fellyra's were on a whole different Earth and the only person he knew that could travel between dimensions was Fellyra. "How?"

"Are we going to go through the whole who, what, when, why, and hows?" Fellyra laughed and the boy glared at her good-naturedly, waving at her to answer the question. "I'm sure A.R.G.U.S wouldn't mind them borrowing Vibe for a few minutes. They owe me after all."

"How many people owe you on different Earths?" Jon laughed.

"Enough, especially the multiple A.R.G. . I'm still working on this Earth though." Fellyra placed her hands on the boy's shoulders and turned him to the heroes watching them curiously. A majority of the original Team, besides Nightwing and Superboy, turned their heads away so they weren't caught staring too. Fellyra hadn't been around them since the whole mind-reading incident. "Go say your goodbyes if you want to. I know you've grown attached."

Jon smiled widely and then ran over to the group, specifically Nightwing and Superboy. Those two he had grown close to since they were willing to be there for him while Fellyra was away. Batman and Black Canary began to walk towards her.

"Thank you," Fellyra whispered to the Bat so no one else could hear her. "For taking care of him while I was away. It was better than him staying at the Mountain alone."

"How did you know?" Batman asked, gruffly.

"Because even when I'm not around Jon, I'm there." Fellyra chuckled at the Bat's glare. She understood that her words were a contradiction so instead, she rephrased by saying: "I rely on the shadows to inform me if anything is wrong with him. Also, I'm a good hacker."

Black Canary chuckled at Batman's look before turning to watch as Nightwing walked up to the small group with a smirk. "He and Damian didn't get along at first; they fought more than Tim, Jason, and Damian combined."

"I suspected as much." Fellyra laughed. "They are polar opposites after all."

"Exactly like Batman and Superman then." Nightwing joked, for which he received a very intense Batglare. For what it's worth, he only slightly moved away from his mentor. "But they started to get along, especially when they started their pranks."

"Agent A hated it, although he wouldn't admit it because he didn't want to be 'rude' to our guest." Robin II added as he walked up with Jon thrown over his shoulder. The younger boy was laughing but also squirming to get out of the teen's grip. "They were damn annoying."

"Robin!" Batman scolded and said boy just placed Jon back on his feet, probably rolling his eyes behind his domino mask.

Fellyra crossed her arms and grinned. Although she seemed relaxed and was totally not evil (possibly), the older heroes, especially the Bat clan knew those clothes she wore from anywhere. They gave everyone more reason to find her suspicious. But Batman wouldn't judge just yet, not without more information; after all, he too wore something similar at one point, along with his son. And those clothes might mean something totally different on the girl's own Earth. "They are the _Super Sons, _I guess_. _They have some things in common too, so it is understandable that they would tag team." Fellyra joked.

"I like that name," Jon laughed. "It's catchy."

_Recognized: Superman 01, The Flash 05, Doctor Fate 18._

Flash was the first one to make it to the Briefing Room and he looked around the room, spotting the small group right away. He sped over to Jon and placed him on his shoulders. "I hope you weren't going to leave without saying goodbye."

Jon laughed. "I said some of my goodbyes, but I can't say them to people who aren't here."

"It was fun meeting Superman's son; guess we know what awaits us in the future." Flash joked as Superman walked in with Doctor Fate. The Boy Scout's face turned a light shade of pink because the whole 'Louis Lane is the mother' thing. He hadn't really thought of that future.

"It was great meeting everyone!" Jon cheered. "It's cool to see the Justice League that Jay always mentioned and meet the Flash that was his predecessor. I definitely have blackmail material now. I wonder if everyone was the same on our Earth."

Everyone glanced at Fellyra for confirmation, but the girl shrugged. "I don't know. I've never met any of them, mostly because they were dead before I was born too."

Her explanation made the air solemn and tense. No one wanted to say anything more on the subject, so Superman walked over to Jon and gave him his own goodbyes. Although the man wasn't quite ready for this type of future yet, he enjoyed the boy's company. Jon actually reminded him of himself when he was a child.

Doctor Fate didn't move to say goodbye and Fellyra suspected that he only came in order to see her powers at work. Apparently, he wouldn't take anyone else's retelling of it.

"Ready to go Jon?" Fellyra asked.

The said boy climbed off of Flash's shoulders and stood beside the girl. He nodded his head with a big grin plastered on his face. "I miss Jay and Jessie. Surprisingly Vincent too."

Fellyra laughed and then turned to look at Krypto who had just raised his head to watch his boy but didn't move. Allowing Jon to have his time to say goodbye. The teen whistled for the dog and he jumped to his feet, running over to the two in record time. He circled them; tail wagging so hard that his butt was shaking with it. Guess he was ready to go home too.

"Stand back," Fellyra said, a smirk pulling at the corner of her lips. She placed a hand on Jon's shoulder and motioned Krypto to sit as everyone that was close to her to a tentative step back. When she was satisfied that everyone had listened to her, she closed her eyes and began whispering something under her breath; it sounded like another language.

Then a purple ring began to glow around the trio, Jon's eyes went wide with wonder. Zatanna gasped, realizing exactly what it was. How could any magician make a spell circle alone? Even Klarion needed help when he divided the Earth.

"_Umbra_." The girl ordered, opening her eyes once more to reveal pure golden irises. Said shadow appeared before her just outside the circle. Its ruby eyes stared only at its master awaiting further commands. "_Circulus._"

Umbra took a step toward the circle where it seemed to melt into the ground, and then flames of black and blue sprung up around the spell circle.

"Go to Earth X2!" Fellyra commanded and the flames grew into a wall around the trio, before suddenly going out; Fellyra, Jon, Krypto, and even the spell circle, gone in the blink of an eye. Almost as if they were never even there.


	15. Chapter 15

***A/N:** Sorry this took so long, I had exams and I was crazy busy. I'm also sorry that this is more like a filler chapter*****

Chapter 15

"_Human connections are what keep us human... You are always going to have people in your life, and they will always need you. For better or worse, baggage and all. And if you can't accept that, your past is going to stay your anchor."_

_\- Malcolm Merlyn (Arrow)_

* * *

Young Justice and some of the Justice League

Outside the Mountain, Training Grounds, Happy Harbor

February 12th, 2013 15:00 EDT

* * *

Most of Young Justice was training using the differing environment outside the Mountain. The original mentors (Batman, Flash, Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Martian Manhunter) observed the group, occasionally interfering in some way in order to make the training unpredictable. The eleven-year-old Tim Drake, dressed in another Robin uniform, watched wide-eyed from his place next to Batman. The second Robin wasn't too happy when the kid showed up with their mentor but begrudgingly accepted his presence when Nightwing explained that Tim was there to begin his training so when Jason had a mission with the team and couldn't be in Gotham, Tim could take over. Just as Jason did with Dick, especially when the older boy had disappeared only to reappear leading the Teen Titans.

Other than the appearance of another Robin, the day was pretty predictable with nothing out of the ordinary. Fellyra had yet to come back so no one could question her peculiarity and the Mountain seemed a little less tense with the girl gone, although Jon was missed. And just as everyone thought that Fellyra suddenly appeared in a ring of blue and black flames.

She was wearing civvies instead of what she was wearing before she left. Now she wore a tan leather jacket over a gray short sleeve shirt, skinny blue jeans, and simple white converse. A black bookbag hung from one of her shoulders, on the other side she held a manila folder to her hip.

"I thought you were going to be gone long." Robin II said, a bit of sass in his voice. "You had a laundry list of things to do."

"Sorry to disappoint you, kid," Fellyra smirked. "I don't like staying on my Earth for too long. Plus, when I go to see my siblings, I always have to sneak in. So, it's not like I can stay there."

Robin crossed his arms muttering, "Kid? You're only a year older than me."

Fellyra laughed and walked up to the present Justice League members. Digging in the black bag on her shoulder, she pulled out a vial that was half full of a bluish-green liquid. The original Team members immediately recognized it as the vial she stole on their 'save Bruce Wayne's son' mission, it was the only one left that they knew of too since Fellyra destroyed the batch being transported. So, Fellyra held out the vial to Batman and he took it, examining its contents.

"That's the last bit of OM-54 serum left on my Earth, maybe even this one," Fellyra said. "I was able to get what I needed from it, so I thought you'd want to examine it yourself."

Batman nodded and put it carefully in his utility belt. The Fellyra held out the manila folder to the heroes. There was a large green symbol on the front cover, one that strangely looked like the symbol used for the Tree of Life; it was a pretty thick folder too, broken up into sections by different colored paper clips.

"And that's everything that Jay and I compiled about the Genesis Project and Doctor Hollander. A lot of it is my own personal notes though." Fellyra shrugged. "Since Doctor Hollander is working with your enemies, I thought this would help to know what and who you're dealing with."

The first page of the folder was almost entirely blank except for the bolded black words that read, 'Super Soldier Project'. It was actually the smallest section in the whole folder which surprised the older heroes that looked over Batman's shoulder. You would think that it would be bigger considering it was the only "successful" experiment. But when they finally opened it, they understood why it was so small. It was only a basic profile on each of the thirteen Super Soldiers.

A majority of them were no older than their teenage years and each profile mentioned their meta-human abilities along with the weapons they specialized in. It also had their basic information like their birth dates, blood type, strengths, and weaknesses, why they were chosen for the program, and their ranking depending on their skills and strengths. Each profile had a picture of the person in the left-hand corner.

As Batman flipped through the pages, he tried to remember if he heard Fellyra mention any of the names. It wasn't until he came upon the second to last page that he found a name that sounded familiar. He remembered both Jon and Fellyra mentioning this one person. 'Adrian Winters'.

The man smirked in the picture; a devil may care kind of smirk as if he just got done pissing off the person behind the camera. He had golden hair that was parted to the side and tapered at the sides. His eyes were a bright sapphire blue and he had a tan that indicated that he was always outside. According to the record, he was only nineteen years old. His metahuman ability allowed him to control animals and he specialized in archery and hand-to-hand combat. His skills and abilities ranked him third amongst the Super Soldiers.

After him was a face that everyone recognized, albeit the person was a lot younger in the picture. Fellyra glared back at the camera, a small nine-year-old with a heated look directed at the person behind the camera. Her hair was shoulder-length at this time and her eyes were a weird combination of a light ocean blue with gold flecks here and there. Her eyes then compared to now were drastically different, for which Batman swore he would find out the reason for later. And her records indicted the same metahuman abilities that she already told them about, and she specialized in multiple things. Swords, archery, marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat; she was literally a jack of all trades when it came to combat. Her skills and abilities ranked her in second, above someone ten years her senior.

"You were so young." Martian Manhunter said.

"Yeah," Fellyra mumbled. She smiled softly as she remembered something. "I met Adrian when I was seven. I stole his wallet and he gave me an apple to get it back."

"Stole his wallet?" Green Arrow asked.

Fellyra shrugged. "I was hungry and at that time I was living on the streets for about a year. When you're in that situation, you do whatever you can to get a bite to eat… I met him again a couple of weeks later and he took me under his wing and taught me everything he knew."

"Sounds familiar," Nightwing said as he walked up with the two Robins. He tossed Batman a knowing grin and Robin II smiled with pride. "Less drastic though."

Batman ignored his ward and flipped to the next page in the file. A forgotten polaroid photo slipped out from between the pages and he caught it right as it was falling. It depicted a happy scene and by the looks of it, it was taken before these files were written. Adrian Winters had Fellyra thrown over his shoulder, holding her by her legs. She had what looked like a football clutched to her chest and she was laughing. Adrian was also laughing, and his eyes were bright with mirth.

"I think this is yours." Batman handed the polaroid over to the confused girl who still took it without question. The mentors who had seen it now had a solemn expression, and the Batboys frowned slightly when they caught sight of it. When Fellyra finally looked at the picture she seemed surprised as if she didn't even know it existed and then a small smile spread across her face.

"I remember this day," Fellyra said, her voice sounding watery and quiet. "We were celebrating our first-year anniversary. He thought it would be a good idea to just have a break and go to the beach. A few of the other Super Soldiers came with us and we were playing touch football. Adrian didn't get the rules, I guess. He always cheated at games."

M'gann could feel the sorrow, guilt, and nostalgia that rolled off the teen; they were so strong that she couldn't ignore them no matter how hard she tried. And then without meaning to, she was sucked into a memory.

_"Okay, we are going with plan gamma." A young man said to Fellyra and another teen. They were huddled together, one knee on the ground and their arms resting on their other knee that was propped up. The man had short silver hair and gray eyes; he wore a red bandanna around his bicep just like his teammates. _

_ "Got it!" A little Fellyra exclaimed, pumping a fist into the air._

_ The other boy, a 15-year-old with brown hair and brown eyes laughed as he pushed himself to his feet. They got into position just like the other team which had Adrian and two 13-years-olds. The opposite team wore yellow bandannas around their biceps and smug smiles._

_ "Hike!" The silver-haired man shouted and then the ball was in his hands, and the brown-haired teen was running towards the group as a distraction. Fellyra ran up behind the man and he discreetly handed the football off to the girl before he ran forward as if he still had the ball. The two boys blocked the other team as Fellyra ran forward towards the crudely marked end zone. _

_ Right as she was about to reach it, arms wrapped around her waist and brought her up into the air before depositing her on his shoulder. He began to spin around and Fellyra hung onto the ball as she laughed._

_ "Cheater!" She giggled. "We're playing two-hand touch, Adrian!"_

_ "If I can lift you, I'm sure that's good enough for two-hand touch." Adrian laughed. "Sorry, Little One. I hate losing."_

_ They both heard other people laughing and Adrian ceased his spinning, beaming at their companions. The two 13-year-olds, who M'gann just realized were twins, high fived each other and bragged that they won to the other guys. The silver-haired man flicked the two boys in the head as a response._

Laughter followed M'gann as she broke free from the memory and she was unable to stop the tear that slipped down her face. She could feel the undeniable love that Fellyra had for these people, she saw them as her family, and M'gann couldn't imagine how it felt for her to lose them. And now she understood the girl's anger at them implying she would work with Doctor Hollander; he was the man that took away her family from her and all for his own personal gain. She was sure that if someone took Young Justice from her, M'gann would be angry too for being accused of working with that person.

"M'gann?" Connor whispered and the Martian quickly wiped the tears from her eyes when she noticed that Fellyra had turned to look at her. Actually, the group around her were also staring, Nightwing, and the Robins with narrowed eyes, and her uncle with eyes full of sorrow.

"I'm sorry." She said to Fellyra. "I didn't mean to pry but when your emotions are so strong, sometimes they—"

"I know." Fellyra interrupted, a small smile was all the assurance that the Martian needed to know that she didn't anger the girl. "I get it."

"I'm sorry that we accused you of possibly working with that man," M'gann added and the other members of the original team looked at her shocked. Conner slightly smiled, pride in the Martian evident. "You really cared for them… they seemed really nice."

"They were annoying," Fellyra smirked. "But they were my family, just like your Team is for you. I know you wanted to protect them and that's why you wanted to read my mind. I'm still mad about it, but I understand."

M'gann smiled and floated over to the younger girl. She felt a bit comfortable enough to joke with the girl, so she said: "You were so small and cute. What happened?"

Fellyra glared at the Martian before laughing with her. "I'll have you know that my puppy dog eyes got me whatever I wanted. And little old ladies still love me now."

"That lady at the diner did really like you."

Both girls laughed. The two joking around seemed to lighten the tension that had settled over the group since the 'mind-reading' incident. And for the first time, everyone saw a lighter side of Fellyra without Jon having to be present. It was refreshing, but it also revealed a bit of who Fellyra was, or at least who she was trying to be.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"_All I meant by that is he has lived through a lot of darkness and all he really cares about is making sure no one else has to go through what he's gone through."_

_\- Barry Allen (Arrow & The Flash)_

* * *

Fellyra

Abandoned Warehouse, Gotham

February 15th, 2013 11:00 EDT

* * *

Fellyra sat at her make-shift table rolling a plastic syringe that contained a golden liquid. Now she had everything she needed to take on Marx, but she had to find him first and she didn't know where he could possibly be on this Earth. There was one place she hoped he wasn't at, and if he had met up with her father then that's exactly where he was.

The teen groaned resting her head on her arm. The first time they fought, Marx didn't know Fellyra could use magic, so she had that as an advantage, and she was able to beat him. The second time, Marx won because he knew who to hurt in order to get her distracted. And the last time, she only won because one, someone had blown up the building he was in and had to worry about; and two, he thought Fellyra was dead… and she was and she had accepted her fate, but her brothers and sister made a deal with Ra's al Ghul in order to use the Lazarus Pit to bring her back. Marx knew that Fellyra was the heir to Ra's al Ghul in their world, but he didn't foresee the man actually resurrecting her and that gave her the advantage to trap him.

This time he couldn't use anyone to hurt her and she had lost the element of surprise. The only thing she had that she could use against Marx was the lessons she had beaten into her as a child. Under normal circumstances, there was no way Marx could beat her in a sword fight; not only was she trained by Ra's al Ghul himself, but she was also trained by some of the best fighters among the Super Soldiers. But if Marx was on Infinity Island like she suspected, then he was getting the training that gave Fellyra an edge. It was going to be extremely difficult giving him the antidote she had.

From the corner of her eye, Fellyra saw someone moving in the shadows and instinct made her throw a knife at the intruder. There was a slight yelp and then a young voice saying: "Tt. Really Drake? How are you going to survive as Robin when you can't even hide in the shadows?"

"Tim? Damien?" Fellyra stood as the boys appeared out of the shadow. Neither was harmed, but Timothy Drake had a slight rip in his sweatshirt's sleeve.

"Did you really need to throw a knife?" The eleven-year-old whined and Damien rolled his eyes

"I have people out there trying to kill me." Fellyra deadpanned. "If you're going to lurk in the shadows, I'm going to throw something… Does Bruce know you're here?"

"No. Father's at work," Damien said in a voice that oozed 'did you really ask such a stupid question'.

"But Alfred and Dick know we came here!" Tim hurried to add so they didn't get a lecture from the girl. "Alfred told us that we should invite you over for dinner tonight. He said something about you owing us since Bruce paid for the pain medicine you didn't use."

"I told the doctor I didn't need it."

"But you didn't say that you didn't need it because you healed fast, only that you couldn't afford it." Tim pointed out and Fell sighed loudly. "Alfred also mentioned that it's very rude to know who we really were and not say anything that would alert us to your other life."

"I'm sure Doctor Thompkins had her suspicion and told Bruce."

"But you were also claiming that you were abused by your foster parents—"

"Which I was." Fellyra interrupted.

"So, Leslie thought that they could have been from years of abuse too." Tim continued as if Fellyra hadn't interrupted.

The teen sighed in defeat before asking: "How'd you know I was here?"

"Tt. Batman's the Greatest Detective in the World." Damien said and Fellyra matched his glare with one of her own. "He's been keeping tabs on you."

"Great." The girl muttered and grabbed her jacket. "When do you want me to be there?"

"Pennyworth said come now so that Father couldn't object. Barbara Gordon is there too and has expressed an interest in seeing you outside the mountain." Damien informed her and Fellyra threw on her jacket before waving the boys out. She made sure to stash the syringe somewhere on her before following them out. "I don't see why she's so interested though. Your just another vigilante using parlor tricks."

The girl rolled her eyes at the young al Ghul boy and then she muttered, "If you only knew."

XXX

"They're back!" Barbara exclaimed as Dick and she ran from the library. Dick, still a bit of a kid at heart, slid down the rail of the staircase as Barbara ran down the stairs. Jason followed Alfred into the foyer, and Jason rolled his eyes at the two as Alfred gave them a disapproving glance.

"Holy shit guys. She's just another vigilante, it's not like we don't see that every day." Jason said to them and then was promptly scolded by Alfred for his language. Both Barbara and Dick snickered at that.

"But she's a vigilante from another Earth," Barbara said. "One that doesn't have any heroes, besides one who isn't even the Flash we've seen on our Earth. I want to hear all about it."

"It seems interesting." Dick shrugged. "Plus, as Alfred said, she's alone in this world and we all know what that feels like."

Jason just scoffed in response and Alfred opened the door for the three coming up the stairs. "I'm glad one of you boys actually listen when I speak," Alfred said, waving the two younger Batboys in, Fellyra trailing behind.

"Hello, Pennyworth." Damien said as Tim said, "Hey Alfred."

Fellyra walked in a few steps behind the boys, hands in her jacket pockets. "Sorry for the intrusion."

Alfred smiled at the girl's manners, only hearing something like that from the Gordons. Sadly, being in a home full of boys, manners were a bit lacking no matter how hard the Englishman tried to teach the boys some etiquette. "There's no intrusion at all. After all, you're an invited guest."

"Technically, the master of the manor didn't invite her." Jason pointed out, trying to mock the old butler's English accent but failing miserably. Tim jabbed an elbow into the boy's stomach as Dick tapped him on the back of the head. "Ow!"

"Master Bruce may be the master of the manor, but we all know who's actually in charge," Alfred said, and had the Batfamily not laughed at his words, Fellyra wouldn't have known the man was joking. He was so stoic, and his tone was so serious that Fellyra was a bit thrown off.

"You can explain this to Father then, Pennyworth." Damien was looking out the window and he pointed as a black car pulled into the long driveway. The other three boys looked at each other wide-eyed and Barbara joined Damien at the window.

"He's home early today," Barbara observed.

"His bat senses must be tingling." Jason joked. "He must know we're up to no good."

Fellyra looked at each person as they watched as Bruce got out of his car. Everyone but Alfred, who was dusting now, was at the window and Fellyra's eyebrows knitted into confusion. "If I'm not supposed to be here, I could always just disappear."

"Nonsense." Alfred scolded her and Fellyra raised an eyebrow in response to the older man. "I invited you over for supper and you'll stay for supper; there is nothing Master Bruce could say to change my mind."

Fellyra felt that there was a grander reason why Alfred wanted her to come for supper and it had nothing to do with her knowing everyone's identity before they knew hers or the fact that Bruce paid for her pain medicine. Damien had said that Batman was keeping tabs on her which means he knew where and how she was living, and she suspected that everyone in the household knew; including the butler. And them knowing that she was living off the grid with no money means that they knew she hadn't eaten anything in the last two days. After all, she hadn't gone back to the mountain, instead choosing to be on her own to search for Marx. Fellyra suspected the real reason she was invited over was that this family couldn't turn a blind eye to someone they thought needed help. But she also had a feeling that Bruce wouldn't mind her being here because he was trying to get answers too. Fellyra was a mystery to everyone and it wasn't like the Bat could just hack some kind of computer to get information on her. And from the files, she found on this group called "The Light", the League of Shadows wore the exact same clothes on her Earth and this one. And how she dressed to bring Jon back and his reaction to the clothing was a dead giveaway about her past.

"Welcome home, Master Bruce." Alfred greeted as the man walked in the door. "We didn't expect you to be home so early."

"Yeah. We didn't have time to hide our 'guest'." Jason staged whispered to his brothers and all three glared at him as if to tell him to 'shut it'. His only response was to laugh.

"That is rude to our guest, Master Jason." Alfred reprimanded the boy who just smirked. "We don't want our guest thinking that she shouldn't be here."

"Yeah Jason," Dick said, pulling the boy into a headlock. Fellyra watched as they fought for a second before Alfred went to break them up. The teen could feel eyes boring into her back and she turned her head to meet Bruce's gaze.

"Is Alfred being nosy and decided to invite you to dinner?" Bruce asked, a small smile tugging at his lips which shocked Fellyra. She didn't think the Batman could smile, he always seemed so… emotionless.

"Master Bruce!" Alfred scolded and the Batfamily tried to hold in their laughs behind the man. "Do you boys have no manners? The poor girl is probably feeling like she's unwelcomed."

"I wasn't kicking her out." Bruce pointed out.

"But you boys are making it seem like she's either here as an intruder or for an interrogation," Alfred told the man.

Barbara laughed and patted the other girl on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Fellyra, you don't have to tell us anything if you don't want to, and when Alfred suggested that the Wayne family invite you over for dinner, the boys agreed and went to fetch you."

"Barbara!" Tim and Damien exclaimed.

"What?" The redhead laughed at the boys. "You guys are making her feel uncomfortable, so I thought that you guys should feel the same way."

"Jason's the one cracking the jokes," Tim whined.

"Watch it Drake or you'll wake up purple." Jason threatened and the younger boy stuck out his tongue at the threat.

"Don't worry, Jason will get what's coming to him soon." Barbara grinned. "By the way Timmy, what happened to your sweatshirt?"

"Drake is bad at staying quiet," Damien said.

"Hey!" Tim exclaimed. "She's as paranoid as Bruce. A slight pebble moving has her throwing knives."

"I have people trying to kill me," Fellyra repeated, her voice bored. "Why were you trying to sneak up on me?

"Training." Both boys answered at once and then glared at each other for saying the same thing.

"Sure." Fellyra drawled. "Doesn't seem like you had any training at all in that aspect."

"Ha!" Jason laughed mockingly before walking over to Fellyra and Barbara. "I like you already, Outis. You'll fit in just fine."

Damien was not only fuming at the girl's lack of acknowledgment of his skills but because Jason Todd was buddying up to her and he'd make Damien look like a fool. Drake was the one that got them caught in the first place. "I'll have you know that—"

"You're the heir to the demon; yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it." Fellyra cut him off before he could go into his speech.

"The blood son." Dick and Jason joked good-naturedly.

Damien glared. "Of course, you're like the rest of them and don't know what it means being trained specifically by Ra's al Ghul."

Fellyra didn't reply to that, instead, she just smirked at the boy and raised an eyebrow. The other boys started taunting him, but Damien Wayne didn't miss the knowing look in her eyes. Bruce hadn't either.

Then there was suddenly a loud screeching noise coming from each person's phone. Each member of the Wayne family, and Barbara, looked at their phones. Fellyra was left out from the message since she didn't have a phone to look at. But she didn't have to ask because Wally West burst through the front door.

"You're getting the message too," The teen huffed, and he was met with shocked stares. "You need to turn on the TV. Right now."

Everyone moved into the living room, Fellyra following behind, and Bruce turned on the TV. At first, it was just a black screen with the red words: 'One Moment Please". Then Fellyra instantly recognized the man that popped on the screen. He was clean-shaven now, unlike when he was in his cell, and he no longer had his long hair; instead, he sported a crew cut. Both the long pale scar cutting down the middle of his eye and his blue eyes stood out against his tan skin. He wore his usual outfit: the turtleneck, the leather straps, everything.

"Don't worry everyone, you can get back to your regularly scheduled program once I get my message out." The man smirked. He had never been flashy like this before, and Fellyra couldn't figure out what his end game was and that unnerved her. "I know my Little Friend knows exactly where I am but won't come here because she knows I outed her. Sorry, Kiddo."

Fellyra's glare intensified. Of course, the bastard was on Infinity Island and told Ra's al Ghul and the Light who I was on our Earth. She growled. "Marx."

Everyone turned to look at Fellyra when she spoke, her glare focused on the man on the screen. She should have known he would make the first move, Marx always wanted to be in control of this little game of his.

"That's Marx?" Kid Flash asked, his jaw-dropping. "He's—uh big."

"The OM-54 Serum helps with that."

"He's a Super Soldier? You said you were the only survivor."

Fellyra shook her head, not able to answer since Marx started speaking again. "And since you won't come to me willingly, I've got something to force your hand."

Marx moved back away from the camera and stood next to a young man chained to a chair. He was beaten and bloodied, no one was sure if he was even alive. Fellyra didn't recognize him at first, mostly because she couldn't believe that Marx got to him. But she began to recognize the shaggy brown hair, the tight fitted Kevlar shirt with the red "X" on the right shoulder, a red ribbon that matched hers on his own wrist, and those stupid cargo pants. They had taken away his weapons, but they couldn't take the one thing that made him easily recognizable to her; the golden metal band with a ruby line running through the center clasped around his left bicep… the Totem of the Gods. She couldn't believe her eyes and she felt a cold pit settle in her stomach when Marx pulled the man's head back by his brown locks.

"Say hi to the camera, _Ira_, I'm sure the little Shadow wants to make sure it's you." Marx smirked at the camera. The other man just groaned, barely able to open his eyes with the blood running down his face. But he was able to open one, but only slightly, grayish-blue eye and glared at the camera. "Sorry. I mean Nox. That's what you go by here right, child? Didn't really change much, just went from a Shadow to Night."

"Kaden?" Fellyra muttered, not sure if this was some kind of trick or if that was actually him. Marx had never met Kaden so there was no way he could copy the man's look enough to fool her. But on the other hand, Marx didn't have the ability to travel between dimensions. If Jon's boom tube broke upon arrival, his tube should have too.

"Don't believe me, do you?" Marx shook his head and chuckled. "You were always untrusting. Go ahead! Call your Earth X friends, I'm fine waiting but do it quick or I'll make my demands whether you hear it or not."

Fellyra didn't waste time, especially after he mentioned Earth X. She waved her hand and her holo computer appeared in it. She quickly typed on it and then it was making a humming noise. Suddenly a teen with curly blonde hair appeared as a hologram above the computer.

"Fell! Why haven't you been answering your communicator?" The girl exclaimed, panic evident in her voice which made the pit in Fellyra's stomach grow.

"You haven't sent any messages to me," Fellyra growled, fear settling in her veins. "Or I haven't got any, at least."

"Told you!" A middle-aged man appeared on the screen, he was wearing a gray sweater and slacks. "A.R.G.U.S may have Vibe, but their technology when it comes to communicating across dimensions is lacking, especially with Leatherwing always watching."

"Nice friends you have, Fell." A young man appeared as a hologram. His face was covered in cuts and bruises, a long cut was bleeding through the wrappings around his bare chest, and he held an ice pack to his head.

"Friend?" Fellyra snuck a glance at the TV where Marx still stood smirking as if he knew everything that was being said in this conversation. "Muscular tan guy with a large scar on his left eye?"

The blonde girl nodded; her face grim as the men shared a look. "We tried to fight back but we underestimated him, we thought he was only human."

"Usually I don't suspect a person of being a meta-human when they come in with guns and a Katana." The injured teen said and then looked at Fellyra. "Never mind. Strike that… I should have been more open-minded."

He walked away from the camera and the blonde girl frowned at him. "It was only us here when he came. Kara was out doing recon and Leo was helping to free some prisoners. That man took Kaden, said he was going to kill him."

"No, he didn't!" The teen shouted from outside the frame of the camera they were using. "He said if Fell didn't meet his demands then he would kill Kaden… so he's probably dead."

"Of course!" The blonde said glaring at the man that was clearly behind her. "He's a villain! Their word means nothing!"

_I keep my promises kid._

"No," Fellyra said and everyone, including the people in the room with her, stared at her in shock. "If Marx said he wouldn't kill Kaden if I met his demands, then he won't kill him. Marx keeps his promises."

"A villain with a code. Great." The middle-aged man said before leaving the sight of the camera too. The teen came back into focus, abandoning his ice pack.

"Even if this Marx guy keeps his word, Kaden is dead. He wouldn't want you risking your life for him. Not again." The teen said.

Fellyra smiled sadly before saying: "Sorry, what? I can't hear you, your breaking up."

"Fell!" The group yelled as she cut off communication. Her eyes returning to the TV where it was clear that Marx was growing impatient. He had a short temper before the serum, now it only enhanced it.

"Alright!" He exclaimed. "I don't care if you're still trying to prove if pretty boy here is your friend or not. If you don't hear this and don't do exactly what I say, he loses his head."

"Oh god!" Barbara gasped, the first of the Batfamily to say anything.

"Last year I thought I had it all figured out, make you choose between your Stark brother or your Starling sister. Which side of your family deserved to live? You chose to die in their place, honorable I must admit." Marx pointed his Katana at the camera and anger radiated from his gaze. "But I was pleasantly surprised when I was trapped by the same girl I killed the day before. And don't try to fool me, you were dead, I know because I checked and unlike you, I know how to kill a Super Soldier."

Marx tapped at the scar on his eye and smirked. "But I realized it's no fun when the prey wants to die, ruins the whole chase. It's also no fun when we both know you can't beat me. No matter who I hurt, no matter who I kill, you'll always hesitate."

He walked back to Kaden and squeezed his shoulder, the man flinched but other than that he did nothing else. Fellyra was growing tired of his monologue, she just wanted him to make his demands so she could help Kaden. "You can't beat me, kid. Do you want to know why? Because you don't know in your heart what you're fighting for. What you're willing to sacrifice. But I do. You killed Mei and I will kill you in her honor, and my sacrifice, my sacrifice is my family."

Kaden groaned in the video, lifting his head and looking at the camera as if he could see Fellyra staring at him. "Don't. Not worth it."

Marx smirked. "Now he knows what he's willing to sacrifice. He's willing to sacrifice himself, not because he wants to die but because he doesn't want you to die. I admire that, but it makes me wonder what you did to deserve such loyalty."

"Just get to it, Marx." Fellyra growled, she could feel the Rage growing in her, but she pushed it down.

"Anyways," The man said in a singsong voice. "You want to save pretty boy here? You'll meet me where you failed to kill me, and yes it does exist on this Earth. And to save him, we'll partake in a little tradition known to you when you were—Well, you know."

Fellyra eyes widened in shock; that was his demand? He couldn't possibly think that was a good idea. His couple of months of training were nothing compared to her 15 years of it. Marx may be older, but guns were his weapon of choice, not swords or bows.

"Trial by combat," Fellyra said at the same time Marx said it on the screen. Everyone in the room froze and Damien looked at the girl with wide eyes, actually showing some sort of emotion.

"No powers, besides our super strength of course… I can't turn them off like you can, after all. And we'll duel with swords, a little advantage to you since you spent the first five years of your life with a sword in your hand." Marx placed his Katana back in the sheath on his back. "I'll let your friend here go once you arrive and you know how the rest goes. You win, you'll never have to worry about me again, but you will have to worry about other things. Once again, sorry. If I win, well this time even the Lazarus Pit won't bring you back, I've made sure of it."

Kaden looked up at the camera, shook his head slightly, and mouthed something. _Trap._

"You've got a week. Say your goodbyes or whatever, I don't care. Train if you want. But if you're not here in a week, Lover Boy's head gets sent to you in a box. And if I see the little Justice League with you, I'll kill him and then I'll go after Jon after I destroy your little hiding place of course. Easy trade."

The video cut off and then there were frantic newscasters trying to get ahead of the story. Fellyra's hands clenched at her side. She had to stop Marx… more importantly, she had to save Kaden. And if that meant she had to partake in a Trial by Combat with Marx, she'd do it.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: **Thank you _Bunnyxstar _for your comments. It so exciting to be notified of comments and to know someone is actually enjoying the story. :)

**Also!** Thank you to everyone favoriting and following, it's exciting to see that people actually want to be notified when my story has been updated. :)

You guys are the best!

Chapter 17

"_Bad memories are a rubber ball. No matter how hard you try to throw it; it bounces back at you at the same speed."_

_\- Deeksha Shetty_

* * *

Fellyra, Barbara, Wally, and the Wayne Family

Wayne Manor, Gotham

February 15th, 2013 12:00 EDT

* * *

"_Umbra!_" Fellyra commanded and the shadow appeared beside her, scanning the room trying to find the threat to its master. When it didn't perceive anyone in the room as a threat, it looked at Fellyra. She turned to it and gave it her orders. "Awaken the Predecessor before the last one. I'm going to need his help for my training; I'm not taking any risks."

The shadow nodded before sinking into the shadows at her feet.

"You can't be serious!" Wally gaped at her. "A Trial by Combat? Seriously? You'll lose."

Fellyra glared at the speedster who shrunk back a bit. "I'll be fine. When it comes down to Marx or me in a sword fight, I'll always win. Marx was in the army before I met him, he was trained in hand to hand combat and automatic arms. The only training he has with swords is second-hand from a dead man's daughter."

"You should still take the Justice League or Young Justice with you," Barbara said, just as worried for the young girl. Fellyra fighting this Marx is like her fighting Batman who wasn't holding back. "Your friend said it was a trap."

"Marx knows I'm here in Gotham. He said if he saw the Justice League, he would not only kill Kaden, but he would go after Jon, and he would come here to cause havoc." Fellyra met everyone's gaze with a look full of determination. "And I know it's a trap; I've known since he came on TV. Marx has never been flashy; ruthless and meticulous when it comes to getting what he wants, sure. But he's never made our dispute public. He wasn't like some of my other enemies."

Fellyra looked back at the TV and watched as the video was replayed but with commentary from the newscasters. "And not only did he challenge me to a Trial by Combat, which is a dead giveaway to who he's with, but I've had a sneaking suspicion of where he's been since he came here."

"Where?" Wally asked. "Maybe Young Justice can sneak in and do something to help."

"He's on Infinity Island, Kid Idiot," Damien growled, rolling his eyes at how oblivious the Speedster was. It was hard to believe the kid had recreated his uncle's experiment that turned him into a speedster because sometimes he just acted like a moron sometimes.

"The whole 'Trial by Combat being a tradition' screams League of Shadows." Jason deadpanned and Wally gave a half-hearted glare.

"But why did he specifically mention that it was a tradition that Fellyra knew of? And he mentioned that the Lazarus Pit won't bring you back, how would he know that?" Tim asked, his detective side trying to get any answers that he could.

"Ra's could have told him about it." Dick pointed out.

"Grandfather would never do such a thing, at least he wouldn't tell some stranger," Damien argued and Bruce held up his hand to stop the boys' bickering and speculations. They fell silent and watched Bruce as he looked at Fellyra. The girl met his semi batglare with a bored look.

"He said this time the Lazarus Pit won't bring you back. He also mentioned that you chose to die and that you were dead." Bruce stated and then everyone realized that they didn't pick up on Marx's not so subtle hints. Tim looked disappointed that he didn't figure it out himself.

"Is there a question somewhere?" Fellyra asked dropping all pretense of niceties. She had things she needed to do, and Fellyra didn't have time to discuss her past with the Batfamily.

"Were you dead and the Lazarus Pit was used to bring you back?"

"Yes." There was no point hiding it if they hadn't figured it out when Marx was talking, she was sure they would have figure out eventually. Especially if Marx told the Ra's of this Earth everything from our Earth. Fellyra had heard that the Ra's of this Earth had a soft spot for Batman (Evidence: Damien), and she was sure he would have mentioned who she was to Batman eventually, either as a taunt or just a heads up. Now that she thought about it, the Ra's al Ghul of her Earth also had a great deal of respect for the Bat, even after he was killed.

Damien's eyes narrowed at the girl. His grandfather, even one from another universe, would never allow anyone but him use to the Lazarus Pit unless it met his own personal vendetta. And of course, that means whoever he chose as the next Ra's if he wanted that person as his heir bad enough. When that thought crossed his mind, his eyes widened.

"You're the heir to Ra's al Ghul on your Earth," Damien stated; there was no point phrasing it as a question since he was positive that this was the case. "Grandfather wouldn't revive just anyone… and I assume that's true on your Earth too."

Fellyra neither confirmed nor denied his words, instead, she turned her head slightly to the right like she heard something. And then a figure appeared next to her, a teen boy who was hazy around the edges. He had dark hair and his eyes were pure gold. Black vine-like marks traveled up from under his clothing and covered his whole face. He wore a black cloak that had chains on the shoulders, red sashes that crisscrossed in front of him, and the hilt of a sword was barely visible under that cloak. He clearly wasn't a physical being and if he was dead, the people in the room pitied the boy that died at an early age, possibly 16.

"What?" He said upon arrival, his tone clearly giving off an 'I don't want to be here and you're wasting my time' vibe.

"I need your help," Fellyra stopped to consider what she said and then added, "Kind of."

"Kind of?" The teen said, clearly bored and then he looked at everyone in the room, golden irises examining everyone, but he remained uninterested. "You either need help or you don't need help; there's no middle ground."

Fellyra rolled her eyes and the teen crossed his arms before grinning at the girl. "You could have asked the last Predecessor for help. I'm sure he's more than willing to help."

"I like my sanity."

"Pity." The teen said. No one spoke up to ask any questions because this was their opportune time to learn more about Fellyra; more than they've learned in the last hour. "How much longer?"

"10 months."

"Damn." The ghostly teen got a glare from both Alfred and Bruce, so he shrugged as an apology. He moved his hand and waved at the air in the area around knee height. "I remember when you were about this size."

"I was five."

"But still annoying."

Fellyra glared at the ghost teen. This was why she hated dealing with the Predecessors, they were dead so anything that happened in the world now was none of their concern. They could take a serious situation and turn it into a joke because they did not have to fear the future anymore. This Predecessor must have noticed her annoyance because he became serious instantly, his shoulders rigid.

"I'm hoping you didn't call for me to help with the magic part of being the host; I was never good at it." The teen began, his gaze turned to the TV that was playing the video on repeat and his eyes narrowed. He realized at that moment what the current Host wanted. "Seriously? You and the First Predecessor are the best swordsmen—uh or women I guess—among us. There's nothing more I could teach you that you weren't already trained to do."

"I don't need you to teach me anything, I just need some brushing up on some things."

"Brushing up on what? Killing?"

Fellyra speared him with a glare that was quite terrifying even for the dead boy. He held up his hands in surrender. He looked at the heroes in the room who looked at him horrified.

"It was a joke!" He exclaimed.

"Bad timing, dude." Jason said as Wally asked, "Wait! You're supposed to kill in the Trial by Combat?"

Everyone gave the oblivious speedster an 'are you kidding me' look; besides, well, Bruce who just examined the situation. Wally looked at everyone and shrugged. "Yes, because that's common knowledge here. Just because you Bats know what a Trial by Combat entails, doesn't mean the rest of us do. Our trials usually involve lawyers and a judge."

"Hm." The dead teen looked thoughtful at Wally's words. "I guess whether or not your guilty doesn't depend on your strength here. I wish I had that."

Fellyra sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. She really didn't have time for this; in a week she had to face Marx and she just wanted to be prepared. The only reason she called one of the prior hosts is so she could have him as a sparring partner that she couldn't accidentally injure. "If you need to know, there are two outcomes to a Trial by Combat: one of us dies or one of us yields. My plan is that I'm going to try for the latter."

"Try?" Wally gaped at the girl. Was she seriously thinking about killing this guy during the fight?

"Yes. I'm going to _try _to get Marx to yield, and I'm going to _try_ not to die. And, Acacius," The ghost boy reacted to his name and inclined his head to Fellyra. "I only called you as a sparring partner. Can't accidentally kill someone that is already dead."

"Can you accidentally kill someone?" Acacius said and then thought about what he was asking. So, he then rephrased his sentence saying, "Can you accidentally kill someone while you're sparring?"

"Probably." Fellyra shrugged. "We'll find out. And you can probably teach me some tricks that you picked up during your time."

Acacius chuckled. "So, in other words, you want to play dirty?"

"There's no rules when in a Trial by Combat."

"Besides the fact that you have to either die or yield; the same for your opponent." Damien interrupted, a smug look on his face when Fellyra glared at him.

"Can we just send him? You're allowed to have someone take your place if you wanted." Acacius pointed out with a smirk.

"No." Bruce said automatically.

"Shame."

"Why would you want to send him anyways?" Barbara asked the spirit.

"Because he could annoy Marx to death." Fellyra and Acacius said at the same time. Jason broke out into hysterics, as both Tim and Dick tried to hide their smiles. Damien glared at the two Hosts and then his brothers.

"And I repeat," Jason laughed. "I like her."

"Don't let Fell fool you though," The ghost teen smirked at the girl. "She was just as spoiled and just as annoying when she was younger."

"Spoiled?" Fellyra looked at him like he was crazy. Her life before Adrian was anything but spoiled. Home was a battlefield; you had to scheme and hurt others in order to get to the top. Not really a place a five-year-old can be spoiled. And both of her parents tried to kill her at one point.

"Well yeah." Acacius teased. "The Stark family has always been the top of the food chain. You know for being leaders; and vastly educated, which entitled you to more than others. And the Starlings, don't get me started on them."

Fellyra glared at the boy, hoping he'd stop talking. But he continued on saying: "They were at the head of every historical event on Earth X2, whether they were actually there or working it from the shadows. They have the richest people and the most influential villains in their back pockets… No one messed with the Starlings and the Starlings got whatever they wanted. So, spoiled."

"I get it." Fellyra growled. "You can shut up now."

"Did I hit a nerve, _Lady _Fellyra." Acacius sneered. He liked messing with the current host; she was one of the strongest since the First Host, but her weakness is her past. It was her anchor, which could get her killed during the Trial by Combat. Marx knew that the girl was trying to hide from her past so he would say anything he could to distract her; Acacius wanted to make sure that wouldn't happen. Fellyra was one of his favorite Hosts after all.

"Don't call me that!"

Everyone looked slightly shocked at the girl's outburst, and some feared that she was going into a Rage again. Other than that one time at the mountain, Fellyra was always pretty calm or able to contain her anger. Or at least that's what the heroes had gathered about her, but they didn't know a lot about the girl to begin with. Again, this moment was the best time to learn more about Fellyra.

"Consider this as part of your training," Acacius suddenly became serious, matching the girl's glare with his own. When Fellyra registered what he said, a confused expression replaced the anger. "You fear who you were in the past, so when someone brings up something from it you get distracted and you can't see past the Rage. Marx knows this and he knows your past. And I'm sure that this Trial by Combat will be broadcast to the world and he'll use this to his advantage."

Fellyra frowned, mulling over what the Predecessor said. But she couldn't just reveal her past. She wasn't a good person before, and although she was trying to be a better person, the heroes here wouldn't understand that. They probably wouldn't think twice about throwing her into Belle Reve.

Acacius sighed, understanding her conflict in that moment. "I'm not saying that you have to talk about your past, I understand that a lot of it might bring back bad memories. Mei. Adrian. Holden. But, if you don't want your past to be your weakness, then you need to remember that who you were then and who you are now is not the same. You've changed, so it's time to leave the past in the past."

Fellyra nodded and was about to say something when Alfred spoke up. Although his voice was calm, there was an undertone of authority when he said, "And no one here will force you to tell them anything if you are uncomfortable."

The Bats looked at Alfred shocked but agreed with him when he gave them a 'this is not up for debate' look.

"Marx… he was my friend." Fellyra said suddenly but she didn't look at anyone. Her eyes were filled with fear and anxiety and she was staring at the floor. She chose to avoid the topic of her actual family and focus on the real issue. "Basically family… Maybe."

"How'd your friendship turn into this?" Barbara asked her gently. Although Alfred said no one would force her to talk, it was clear that Fellyra wanted to get this one memory off her chest.

"I—" Fellyra paused, the memories flashing before her eyes. The gun, the sword. She swallowed thickly before saying. "I killed someone he cared about."


	18. Chapter 18

A/N (1): Sorry this is so late! I had really bad writer's block; like I knew what I wanted to happen in this chapter but I couldn't put it into words.

A/N (2): There's a lot of arguing and debating between Fellyra and Acacius, a big part of it to show how important the Predecessors are and how dangerous they could be. I really hope it doesn't get annoying. It also helps to give a little insight on Fellyra that we will explore later; this is mostly because I have only alluded to Fell's past and you've only seen glimpses with Adrian and with Marx.

Chapter 18

"_Instead of blaming yourself for something you cannot undo, let it define you."_

_\- Shaun Hick_

* * *

Fellyra, Wally, Barbara, and the Wayne family

Still at Wayne Manor

February 15th, 2013 12:30ish EDT

* * *

"I killed someone he cared about."

Those words echoed around the room; it was the only sound. The room had grown silent once Fellyra started to speak, but now it was tense with shocked silence. Bruce was about to say something until he saw Acacius shaking his head slowly. His eyes spoke volumes, instructing them to let her finish. So, no one said anything.

"I—" Fellyra started and then grew silent once more.

"Start from the beginning." Acacius prompted. "Start from when you got the tip about the OM-54 serum."

"Right," Fellyra said slowly, her eyes still staring at the floor beneath her feet. "A couple of weeks after I saved Jon, I got an anonymous tip that someone was shipping the OM-54 serum to and from an island in the Galapagos. So, Adam—a childhood friend of Adrian—and I took a helicopter and went to investigate."

Fellyra went on to explain everything that happened up until Marx and Mei came to save her. She paused, seeming to get more nervous and afraid.

"Mei came into the tent at the same time that I was freeing Cheyanne; she told me that Marx was distracting Slade, uh the Deathstroke from my earth who I guess is the same person on this earth, and he wasn't fairing well. Apparently, he was a little too close to where one of the missiles hit."

"I asked if she had a weapon—" she didn't mention that it was a gun. "And then we went to help him out. We were able to get away, but they were following us, and Marx was…"

"Injured? Weighing you down?" Wally supplied.

"Dying." Fell deadpanned looking up at everyone for the first time. Her eyes were haunted as if the memories were too much. "He was severely burned and it's not like we had a hospital on the island. Marx said he'd seen injuries like that in the army and he knew he wouldn't survive. He wanted us to leave. Then I remembered the serum I took from Ivo's tent."

She had a faraway look in her eye. "I—I just wanted to save him. But I shouldn't have given him the serum, I knew the risks because I lived with them every day. But—I thought I could help him control it. And then we thought the serum killed him! No, we were sure of it, so we left. Then—Then Ivo—"

The memories became too much for Fellyra to bear and everyone in the room was pulled into her memories; Fellyra's telepathy running amuck and dragging them in to witness the scene.

_"You're nuts! I would never hurt either one of them!"_

_ "…Ten seconds to choose who dies. Choose wisely, you don't want to regret it."_

_ "No! That's your daughter you're putting on the line. You won't hurt her! You can't hurt her!" _

_ "Six seconds."_

_ "You sociopath!"_

_ "Three seconds… time's up. I guess you've made your choice."_

_ "NO!"_

Everyone watched every second of the memory, shocked by what Fellyra had experienced. They saw an eleven-year-old girl put her body between a gun and the small child kneeling on the ground. And then they saw Mei jump for the gun and Ivo shooting her in the head.

The memory ended suddenly, and it was kind of disorienting. But the worst part of that whole memory was when they did come out and saw how broken Fellyra looked. Then her face returned to its usual stoicism.

"It's my fault she's dead. If I had helped her… if I didn't just sit there. If I hadn't chosen." She fell silent. No one said anything and Acacius shifted closer to the girl, his eyes filled with sorrow. He hated that she blamed herself when she wasn't at fault. Ivo killed Mei, not Fellyra.

"The worst part is that I didn't tell Marx when I found out he was alive. He buried Mei and I just let him believe that Ivo killed her. I didn't want him to go into a Rage." Fellyra frowned. "But he did anyways because Ivo told him and then—and then he became what he is now."

Fellyra took in a deep breath to calm her raging emotions. She didn't want anyone pulled into _that_ memory. "He said that killing me would be mercy and that he wanted to make me suffer. In order to hurt me, he promised that he would kill my brothers, my sister, Jon, Jay… anyone I cared about—I'm lucky that I got away from him the first time."

Fellyra's hand instinctively rubbed at her chest, at the place Dr. Thompkins had told Bruce there was a large scar. A scar that should have killed her. "The second time, I wasn't so lucky."

"You said that he wanted to make you suffer," Bruce pointed out.

"He did," Fellyra said, hand dropping to her side. "He put me in a position where he wanted me to choose between my brother or my sister. He thought it would be fun to see who I favored more; my father's side or my mother's side."

"But—" Tim prompted.

"I didn't choose… at least I didn't choose either of my siblings. I told him to kill me and spare both my siblings' life. I _begged _him to kill me." Fellyra's brows frowned as she thought back to that day. In reality, maybe she should have expected that situation. Hindsight is 20/20, though. "I actually thought I got through to the Marx that I once knew; then he stabbed me right through the chest."

The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Given that she avoided the Lazarus Pit question when Damien asked, they were sure of the answer now.

"There was nothing but darkness after that and I don't even remember coming out of the pit. The next time I woke up, I was in my room at the Starling's residence with my brothers and sister watching over me." Her forehead scrunched up and then she added, "I was so angry."

"You didn't know that there was a plan to revive you?" Damien asked. "You were the heir, after all."

"I should have expected it. But a part of me wished that my siblings were smart enough not to put me through that torment." Fellyra admitted, then continued on with her story as if she wasn't interrupted. "They realized I was angry with them, so they left to give me time to cool off. When they were gone, I went after Marx. I knew he wouldn't stop his reign of terror. I didn't know, however, that my brother Holden went after him too. I was able to subdue Marx… But I couldn't save Holden."

"After I caught Marx and had him thrown into a secure facility, there was a problem that arose that I had to handle, and then I spent a couple of weeks on another Earth before coming here to find Dr. Hollander." Fellyra looked over at Acacius who hadn't left her side at all. Out of all the Predecessors, he tended to act like the protective older brother who was also very annoying. "I didn't think all this trouble would follow me. But I will end it, no matter what."

Acacius glanced at everyone in the room, watching as they contemplated Fellyra's words. He then turned to the determined girl. "Then we should get some training in. You may be an extraordinary swords master, but it has been nearly a decade since you've been in a Trial by Combat and I'm sure Marx will not fight fair."

Fellyra nodded. "Let's get to it."

The two turned to leave but stopped when they heard Alfred say, "wait."

Everyone glanced at the Englishman who gave Fellyra a disapproving look. "Do you really think that you can fight a man twice your size when you're weak because you haven't eaten in days."

"I've gone longer than a few days without food and did just fine," Fellyra told him, ignoring his concern. Acacius rolled his eyes but didn't want to get involved in this argument, after all, even Acacius knew that Fellyra wasn't going to win this battle. He knew that the butler was right but the young Host was stubborn, someone who didn't want to accept anyone's charity. Fellyra could hold her own against Marx in a swordfight any day, but not caring for herself as she should put her at a disadvantage. The power of darkness didn't help either.

"I agree with the butler." Fellyra turned and glared at the apparition who ignored her and continued on. "Come on Fell, you're a lot smarter than this and you have never acted first without a plan. You may be the only surviving Super Soldier, the Host of the Darkness, and a descendant of the ancients, but you're still human which means you'll weaken without sleep and a proper meal. Marx isn't under the same constraints since he's probably being treated very well with Ra's and the Light; he's as healthy as he could be and training every day. You've been busy with contingency plans and doing everything you could for Jon that you've weakened yourself without even noticing. When was the last time you slept?"

"Doesn't matter." Fellyra crossed her arms. "The Super Soldier serum can keep me going longer than a normal human."

"It's not just about you being weak because you can't take care of yourself. It's about the darkness. You've been using it more than you usually do; even me being here is exerting too much of the power." Fellyra was about to interrupt but Acacius ignored her attempt and spoke louder over her complaints. "I know you can't use your power during the Trial by Combat. But what about after? This is clearly a trap, so you are going to need a quick getaway that doesn't involve anyone else getting hurt. Your transportation magic is the only choice; and if too much of the darkness is used and your too malnourished or too tired to mentally fight back, then this Earth is doomed. Maybe even the whole multiverse."

"There are only ten months left."

"And he killed more than half the Justice League on our Earth in three." Both Acacius and Fellyra could feel wide eyes burning holes into their backs. Acacius spared a glance with a look that said, _I'll explain later after I explain to this idiot what the problem is_. "Donovan Blackwell was just a normal human when he became the Host to the Darkness, he wasn't a meta nor did he have magic before. But he trained to use his powers and then in five months time heroes were nearly extinct, our Earth had fallen into chaos. Now think about yourself; you're a Super Soldier, an over enhanced meta, you were also trained to use magic before you became the Host. If Donovan takes control, then I give this Earth a month, at best."

"Wait! What do you mean by that?" Growing impatient, Jason voiced the question everyone was wondering. Besides Alfred, who had left the room to begin preparing for dinner. He had no doubt that the girl would be staying for dinner, whether the other boy convinced her or not. No one ever defies Alfred, not even the scary Batman. "Who's Donovan?"

"Donovan is the previous Host." Both Fellyra and Acacius said.

"I thought you were the previous Host," Tim stated, analyzing the two. They were two people that were polar opposites, their personalities being on two extremely different sides of the spectrum. Fellyra was more closed off and clearly didn't want to explain, if her crossed arms and the glare directed away from the family was any indication. Acacius, on the other hand, was more open and willing to let them in on the conversation while Fellyra pretended they weren't there. Clearly not much of a team player.

"I am a Predecessor, but I am not the one that came before Fellyra." Acacius began, turning to the group that was waiting for a proper explanation. "I was the Host before Donovan."

"That's why I asked _Umbra_ for the Predecessor before the previous one," Fellyra muttered and Acacius glared at her.

"If you're not going to contribute to the conversation, then shut it."

Fellyra huffed before turning towards the group and at least attempted to drop the attitude. For the most part, she looked tired and stressed. "Donovan became the Host when he was ten years old and then he trained with the power-up until he was fifteen. Somehow, he figured out abilities that the Darkness had that no one knew was even possible, which made him a danger. When he turned fifteen, he attacked the Justice League and began killing them, convincing the rest of the Villains to stop their games of cat and mouse and help him. That's all the history books say about him; I don't really know too much more."

"Do any of the other Predecessors know why he wanted all the heroes dead?" Bruce asked.

Acacius shook his head. "The Predecessors are only privileged to the new Host's experiences after he or she gets the power. We cannot see the memories from before."

Bruce nodded. "I guess that's not important right now anyway. What do you mean by Donovan taking control though?"

"When Donovan was fourteen years old, he found an old scroll that had a spell that had been hidden for centuries. Even the first Predecessor refused to tell any of us about this scroll." Acacius looked over at Fellyra who was rubbing at her right bicep, a look of discomfort on her face. "The spell was a curse, but not just any kind of curse. It only affects the next Host. It allows the Host that cast it the ability to take over the next Host's body if the next Host has a weak mind. The more Fell uses the darkness, the closer Donovan gets to take over."

"How would you be able to tell if he's about to take over?" Tim asked, now analyzing the girl to make sure she wasn't some evil Host that wants to kill the whole Justice League. The girl simply pulled the right sleeve of her leather jacket down to reveal the black mark that circled her bicep. Bruce noted that it looked bigger than before, now it was stretching down to her elbow instead of being the thin line it once was.

"If this tattoo reaches my heart, then we're screwed. But it only spreads when I use the power of the darkness or I lose concentration on keeping Donovan in check." Fellyra explained.

"Has it ever gotten that far?' Bruce asked. If it had, then he could come up with a plan to bring her back, or else he feared that she would have to be locked up.

"Three times." The girl said, her brows furrowed as she tried to remember how she lost control. "The first time I was only five, so I had the power for about a year. It happened right after my mother died; but I think I was too young for Donovan to take over because as soon as it started, he was pushed back instantly. The second time was when I was ten when Adrian was killed."

"What made you come back to yourself?' Barbara asked.

"It was like I was in a void; I could hear voices all around me, but I couldn't understand what they were trying to say. And then I heard Adrian's voice telling me to live and continue his legacy. I didn't want to disappoint him, so I was able to push Donovan back in his cage." Fellyra answered. "And if it weren't for Kaden, I wouldn't have been able to come back the third time. At that time, he was my anchor and I can't let him get hurt because of the mistakes I made in the past."

"So, those you loved were the only reason you could come back to yourself?" Jason clarified. "Lame."

"Jason!" Bruce scolded.

Fellyra was a little shocked by Jason's comment, but then she started laughing. Truth be told, it does seem lame because she could never save herself and she had to rely on others, but she had learned that the bonds you make with others are a person's greatest strength. "There was a time when I would have said the same thing. But you learn that no one can fight alone, especially if they don't want to lose themselves."

Dick smirked and gave Bruce a pointed look, one that Bruce just rolled his eyes at. But a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

Fellyra sighed and looked over at Acacius. "You're right, Acacius. I won't have someone to bring me back, so I shouldn't act recklessly."

"Did you hear that, Alfie?" Dick shouted. "She's staying for dinner."

Alfred entered the room, wiping his hands with a white dishcloth. "I expected as much, Master Dick, so I already began preparing the necessaries for our dinner tonight. But if Miss Fellyra wants to still get some of her training, may I suggest the Batcave."

"Let's go then!" The oldest said, leading the way down the hall. Fellyra followed as Acacius glanced at Bruce and Alfred and found them whispering. His golden eyes narrowed at the pair, trying to figure out what they were discussing, but gave up and followed Fellyra when she looked back at him expectantly.

Acacius's blade swiped at the air above Fellyra's head as she ducked and retaliated by tripping the Predecessor with a quick kick the ankles. For the fifth time since they started sparring, he hit the ground hard, the tip of Fellyra's blade at his neck to show that another round was won.

"Woah!" Tim exclaimed. He sat at the edge of the sparring ring, his legs crisscrossed, and watched the two-wide eyed. He was ecstatic to watch someone other than his own family and the Young Justice team fight, especially with weapons that the Bat wouldn't let them touch at all. And although Acacius was bigger than Fellyra, Tim was intrigued by her ability to not only use his strength against him but to use her weaknesses (her stature, for example) to her advantage. She was quick and every move she made had a purpose. She didn't seem to need the super-strength provided to her by the Super Soldier Serum at all.

Fellyra twirled the blade in her hand as Acacius got to his feet. She smirked at the young Bat. "Want to try?"

Tim beamed and was about to agree when Batman growled out a stern "No."

"Come on Bats!" Tim whined. "I'll be careful and Fellyra won't hurt me."

"We don't use weapons that kill, Tim."

"Damian trains with a sword all the time!"

"First of all, I was trained by the League of Shadows in order to become the next Ra's al Ghul, Drake." Damian stood beside the Bat computer with his father, arms crossed and glaring at his older brother. "Second, I can only use it to train and Father does not let me use it against anything but a dummy."

Fellyra heard Jason snicker and stage whisper to Dick that Damian should be able to use his sword against Tim no problem then. Bruce scolded the boy and Tim shouted in outrage. The young girl rolled her eyes and sighed. Growing up, Fellyra didn't bicker with her family as the Waynes do; Holden was years older than her, so he was overly protective if anything and she never got to see her father's children until after she returned home. It was saddened to see what she missed out on because her father was a psychopath. Although the Waynes seemed to fight non-stop, they had each other's back at the end of the day.

Alfred entered the room, and everyone fell silent, even Acacius disappeared. "Time seems to elude everyone when they are down here, so I came down to announce dinner is ready."

"Finally!" Jason exclaimed and ran up after the Englishman. Everyone following soon after.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"_I was needed, but I myself did not need. I had followers, but not allies, and only now do I understand the difference. And it is vast."_

_\- Steven Erikson_

* * *

Fellyra

The Mountain's Training Room, Happy Harbor

February 20th, 2013 2:00 EDT

* * *

Acacius grunted as Fellyra landed a kick to the center of his chest, adding a little of her OM-54 strength to knock him back. She didn't give him time to recover before launching at him, her sword raised. Acacius could barely block her attack.

"I yield! I yield!" The man yelped. Fellyra's spectators watched in awe as the girl changed the trajectory of her sword in a moment and stabbed it into the ground next to Acacius's shoulder. The phantom teen sighed; although he was already dead, he was sure that he would have felt the pain of a sword piercing him in his soul.

"What magnificent strategy and forethought, along with technique and strength." Black Canary praised as Acacius disappeared into the shadows and Fellyra sheathed her sword, a sigh escaping her lips. Although everyone wanted to ask, it was Green Arrow who voiced it: "Who was your mentor?"

"I guess you could say I had a lot of mentors," Fellyra said nonchalantly, glancing over at Batman and Nightwing and knowing with one look that they didn't say anything. "My mother and uncle taught me about my magic or the basics of it at least, and the predecessors taught me all about the Darkness."

"And your fighting?" Black Canary asked, she didn't want to pry but the Canary believed that Fell could help with training the younger team members and in order to do that, she wanted to know who trained her. "Was it Adrian? Marx?"

Fellyra shook her head. "Adrian mostly helped me brush up on my skills, among other things, and Marx taught me more about modern-day weapons and how to disarm someone, whether they are bigger than you or not. A lot of my training was beaten into me by my father and Ra's al Ghul."

"Ra's al Ghul?" The older heroes exclaimed, and the younger ones looked at her warily.

"Seriously?" Fellyra asked, glancing over at the Bats. "Are you guys the only brains within this whole operation? I thought this whole trial by combat challenge was a dead giveaway."

"I thought the Arabic symbol on your shoulder was the giveaway that you were trained by the shadows, especially when we could see it when you were wearing an outfit that was eerily identical to the League of Shadows uniform before." Artemis pointed out. Everyone looked at her as if to ask how she knew, and the girl just shrugged. "Raised by Sportsmaster, remember? I know a Shadow's symbol when I see one. And before anyone asks, it wasn't my secret to tell."

"You could have at least told me." Wally's voice was filled with disappointment. Although he had found out about Fellyra's heritage with the Bat Family, he wished his girlfriend had trusted him with what she knew.

"You talk a lot, babe," Artemis said. "And we all didn't trust her, me mostly because I knew she was trained by the Shadows, but you would not have taken the news lightly, Wally. When you get an idea in your head, you tend to stick with it."

"Artemis is correct, Kid Flash," Aqualad said, reassuringly. "Had we known the Fellyra was trained by the Shadows, by Ra's al Ghul, we would have seen her as nothing more than a mole. Even now, this news makes me warily, but the fact that they are willing to call her out in front of the world, assures me she is not one of them."

"I'm also not from this Earth." Fellyra reminded. "My alliance would technically be with the Shadows of my Earth and not this one."

"Wouldn't they want the same thing?" Artemis asked.

Fellyra shook her head and crossed her arms. "All the heroes are dead on my world, remember? The villains want for nothing… well more than half the time, they don't."

"That's horrible." Miss Martian gasped.

Fellyra just shrugged and began typing on her holo-computer, pictures of her Earth appearing on the screen. She scrolled through them showing the different cities that were dark and almost destroyed; the only city that was relatively ok was Central City and, in those pictures, there were signs of two red blurs passing through the streets.

"Cool! There's a Kid Flash on your Earth!" Wally cheered.

"Not really." Fellyra scrolled to another photo showing a picture of the Flash that the team had seen before and a young teen, about Fellyra's age with long brown hair. The Flash of Earth X-2 wore something similar to the Golden Age Flash of this Earth, while the girl wore a suit very similar to this Earth's current Flash but instead of the cowl, she wore a red mask that covered the top half of her face. "As I've said before, Jay Garrick is our Flash, but our Jay Garrick isn't your Jay Garrick. He has a daughter named Elizabeth and she is the other speedster named Jesse Quick."

"Jesse?" Miss Martian looked very confused and Fell chuckled. "Is Jesse a human nickname for Elizabeth?"

"It isn't, M'gann," Nightwing informed her.

"She chose the name in order to honor the original Jesse Quick, Jesse Chambers."

"Oh!"

Fell changed to the next picture and brought up what looked like a news article of a 14-year-old Fellyra in civvies standing on top of a toppled over Mustang and yelling out into the panicked crowd. She was quick to change the pictures and reveal more cities and villains.

"One hero alone cannot protect the whole world. And I wasn't much of a hero back then, so I didn't help too much. And no matter what, you can only do so much when villains are willing to work together." Fellyra said.

"And now Marx, who knows exactly how we were taken down on your Earth, is working with our enemy because he's your enemy," Superman said.

"Because he's my enemy, he's said nothing about the rest of you. He wants to hurt me, so he revealed my identity, but he won't do anything until he's killed me first." Fellyra assured him.

"Killed?!" Miss Martian gasped.

"It's a TRIAL BY COMBAT!" Fellyra exclaimed. "What do you think happens?"

"So, you're going to kill Marx?" Beast Boy asked, his voice quivering with fright.

"No!" Fellyra said, exasperated. "I have a plan. Marx was my friend and because it's my fault he's like this, I have to save him."

"_You _owe him nothing," Nightwing told the teen. "You don't have to force yourself to save someone who doesn't want to be saved themselves."

"Then if not for Marx, I need to save Kaden."

* * *

Fellyra

Purgatory on Earth 16

February 22nd, 2013 12:00 EDT

* * *

The moment Fellyra's feet touched the shore of Earth 16's "Purgatory", she was surrounded by Shadows. Instinctively her fingers tightened around her katana, prepared for an attack. Instead, they led her further down the beach and around a rather large rock formation. Just on the other side of it, Marx stood in the center of a rock ring with his arms crossed and his katana laying at his feet. In the trees at the edge of the beach, Fellyra noticed that Cheshire and Sportsmaster stood just in the shadows of the forest with Ra's al Ghul standing between them.

"Where's Ira?" Fellyra asked, getting straight to business. Marx glanced up and smirked at the girl as she walked with the Shadows surrounding her. She stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the other assassins guiding her; after all, she wore her Nox outfit which made her a red spot, among a sea of shadows (Ha!).

"Wow!" Marx chuckled as Fellyra stopped a few feet away from her opponent. "I must say that I am pleasantly surprised that you didn't run from this fight, or rely on dirty tricks this time."

"You've threatened my friend, you've threatened my family, and you've threatened innocents to get me here. I'm not running anymore." Fellyra growled. "Now, where is Ira?"

Marx just grinned and then the Shadows that had been surrounding her, left her side and made their way into the trees slightly behind Marx. They came back not even a moment later with Kaden between them. His hands were bound in front of him and there was a cloth gag in his mouth; his grayish-blue eyes were filled with fear, not for himself but for her.

They stopped when they made it to Marx's side, and he placed a hand on Kaden's shoulder. Instead of flinching, the teen glared at his tormentor which Fellyra gave him props for.

"He's alive." Marx chuckled and pushed the boy forward and he stumbled forward. He landed on his knees halfway between the two combatants, too exhausted to keep walking. Fellyra quickly met Kaden and knelt next to him, removing his gag.

"Why did you come here, Nox?" Kaden asked, eyes wide.

"Because I won't let you die because of my mistakes," Fellyra told him simply before looking him over. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine and I would have been fine if you hadn't shown up. This is a trap."

"I know. I can read lips."

Kaden rolled his eyes and then glared at a smirking Marx over his shoulder. "What's your plan?"

"This: _Umbra_!" The ruby eyed shadow rose from the shadows behind Fellyra and stood behind her silently awaiting orders. At the appearance of the shadow, Marx and the other villains' eyes widened with shock and a bit of fright. Marx had never seen the being before since Fellyra never used it in her fights against him, choosing not to use that ability because she never wanted to hurt Marx. Not after the island incident. "_Ad montem_!"

The shadow quickly moved from behind Fellyra and began to circle Kaden. The teen's eyebrows frowned and then he realized what Fellyra was planning and made to stop her, but _Umbra _was too fast, and Kaden disappeared with the shadow.

"Neat trick," Marx said, anger and resentment sneaking into his voice, his façade almost dropping. "Where was that trick when Mei was killed? Where were all these powers back on the island?"

"Back then I had no control over them." Fellyra slowly stood and faced Marx. "And I didn't know I could do that particular trick until recently."

Fellyra pulled her blade from its sheath and settled into a defensive stance; sword pointed out in front of her and her sheath held defensively at her side. "But we're not here to talk about what I can and can't do with my powers. You wanted a fight; you've got it."

Marx grinned wickedly, pulling his blade from its sheath and throwing the sheath to the side, which Fellyra took note of. Although in her training matches with Acacius, Fellyra would always make the first move, she couldn't do that with Marx. He was unpredictable and she knew nothing about how he fought with a sword, unlike with Acacius who she knew like the back of her hand.

The two combatants circled each other, waiting for the other to make a move and neither giving any indication about what their plan was. Fellyra would like to say that she didn't get distracted, even for a moment, but she did, and it was because she saw the sun reflect off something in Sportsmaster's hand. A camera. They were recording her.

_Here he comes._ A voice warned, and although she was angry that he was so close to the surface, at that moment she was glad because Marx wasn't pulling any of his punches. Without that warning, Fellyra wouldn't have been able to dodge Marx's blade and then roll out of the way.

Marx chuckled before launching at the girl once more and she easily deflected his attack with her sheath and then slashed out with her own sword, which Marx barely dodged. They exchanged blows a couple of times, Fellyra's arms quivering from the pressure from Marx's hits. Any time Fellyra knew that she wouldn't be able to deflect Marx's attack, she would dodge.

When she had grown tired of just parrying, Fellyra lashed out, catching his blade between her own and her sheath and then kicked him in the stomach. Fellyra would be lying if she said she didn't use any of her magic during that fight; in that very moment, she used it to give her a little extra strength in order to kick Marx to the ground. Then she held the tip of her blade at his neck.

"Yield Marx! You can't win and I won't kill you."

"And why's that?" Marx chuckled. "You've already tried once before and don't act like killing is above your morals. The ends justify the means, remember?"

Fellyra scowled and removed her blade from Marx's neck and stepped back, standing away from the downed man with her sword down by her side. The girl spoke silently, as if uncertain. "That's not who I am anymore. So, if you won't yield then this fight will go on until neither of us can fight any longer. Or until you kill me if you can."

Marx smirked as he made his way back to his feet.

_Behind you_. Fellyra jumped to the side as an arrow soared through the air where she just was. She turned slightly to find where it came from, but only saw darkness and trees. But she was positive it was one of the Shadows. _Block!_

Fell quickly turned, bringing up her blade as a guard. Because of her slow reaction and Marx's brute strength, her katana was torn from her hand and skidded across the sand. She barely had time to duck as Marx continued to attack. She tried using her sheath to block but it was broken clean in half after the fifth block.

At this point, she knew she had one choice if she was going to survive. So, she backflipped away from Marx and grabbed something from the pouch at her thigh. Launching herself at Marx once more, she ducked under his blade and struck out with her left hand, the sun glinting off something.

Marx grabbed that hand, halting its trajectory millimeters from his neck. This didn't deter Fellyra as she dropped the object in her hand and caught it with the other before plunging it into Marx's chest. A stunned silence fell upon the beach until Marx stumbled away from the teen, pulling an emptied syringe from his chest.

"W-What—"

"It's a cure," Fellyra informed him. "Vincent made it using the OM-54 serum I stole from the shipment in Gotham."

Marx looked at the girl wide-eyed as his body began to shake. He fell to his knees gasping for air and then his eyes slide close slowly. Marx's body crumbled to the ground in a heap and Fellyra ran to him, spotting Cheshire and Sportsmaster running at her from the corner of her eye.

"_Ad montem_!" Fellyra commanded as she laid a hand on Marx's shoulder. Then there was darkness before the Mountain's gray walls came into view once more.

"Fell!" Kaden yelled, surprise lacing his tone.

The teen grinned tiredly at her friend before noticing the red magic that had slither to take a hold of him, Batman, Black Canary, Flash, Nightwing, Kid Flash, and Wonder Woman. Fellyra got up to help them when someone spoke up.

"Move and lover boy becomes a pin cushion." Fellyra turned to glare at Talia al Ghul who held a crossbow aimed at Kaden. Klarion stood beside her and beside him stood Captain Boomerang and Deadshot, their guns pointed at Fell.

"Seriously?" Fellyra grumbled. "They couldn't send a likable al Ghul?"

Klarion began laughing and Talia glared at the girl. "Likable al Ghul? Who would that be?"

"Nyssa." The girl said without hesitation.

Talia's fingers tightened around her crossbow, her knuckles turning white and Fellyra was sure she was going to get an arrow to the eye until Marx started grunting. He stood slowly, clutching his head and Fellyra was growing tense by the moment. She had no idea if the cure would work, after all, there are only two people who have the OM-54 serum coursing through their veins and Fell didn't test it on herself. Was it the Rage that wanted to make her suffer or Marx himself?

Hope blossomed in her chest when she saw that his eyes were no longer bright blue that was an indicator of the OM-54 serum. But that hope was shattered with Captain Boomerang's next words.

"Now what was the point of curing him? You can't actually believe that the man wasn't a villain before this 'Rage' as you call it."

"I trust in the man he was," Fellyra said.

"Didn't he kill your brother?"

"Emphasis on 'was'."

Captain Boomerang chuckled and looked at the man as he rubbed his temples and tried to catch his bearings. "Come on, man. Don't tell me that only this Rage is the root of all your hate. Even if it was, you should probably join the winning side."

Marx blinked slowly and looked over at Fellyra, then a smirk pulled at his lips. "If you think you'll beat her at that distance, you have another thing coming. Her magic gives her quite the advantage at a distance. My suggestion is to put a gun to her head."

He pointed at Fellyra and her eyes narrowed. Deadshot grins at Captain Boomerang before walking up to the teen and placing the barrel of his gun right in the center of her head. The steel was cold against her skin and Kaden had shouted something behind her but Fell didn't take her eyes off Marx. She watched as he walked up to Captain Boomerang and noticed as his fingers rolled into a fist.

"Too bad your still so small, _kiddo_. Maybe you could have gained the upper hand if you could have disarmed someone twice your size." Marx laughed.

Fellyra's eyes widened just a fraction when his words triggered a far off memory of a better time.

_"I'm an excellent Marksman." A young Fellyra bragged as she ran after Marx who was leading her into the woods with Mia, Mei, and Joseph. "It was a priority that I was taught to kill someone close up or from a distance."_

_ "But what about defending yourself or disarming someone? Did they teach you that?" Marx asked._

_ "No. I was taught to kill; there was no need to defend myself or disarm anyone." Fellyra informed him, eyebrow raised. "Plus, I'm small. There's no way I can disarm someone bigger than me. So, I was taught that if it ever came to that situation, I would run."_

_ Marx grinned. "That's not true. With the right technique and training, you can disarm anyone, kiddo."_

"Welcome to the winning side." Captain Boomerang chuckled as he laid a hand on Marx's shoulder.

"You know," Marx drawled. "Once you've assumed you've won, is when you actually begin to lose."

Everything after that seemed to happen almost too fast. Marx had grabbed Captain Boomerang's arm and punched him in the face, ripping the gun from his hand as he fell and turning it on Klarion. When Marx did this, Fellyra took advantage of the distraction and grabbed Deadshot's extended arm, twisting his wrist and then pulling him so that she could use his trajectory to trip him and throw him to the ground. Although before he hit the ground, Fellyra made sure to not only grab the second gun that was in his waistband but to also punch him in the kidney. So, when he hit the ground, he clutched his side and groaned. Fellyra then aimed one gun at Talia and then the other at Deadshot so he didn't get up.

Captain Boomerang groaned from his spot on the ground. "Dude! Did you just get taken down by a tiny teenage girl?"

"Ugh! I'm man enough to admit that not only did I get taken down by a little schoolgirl, but that she took both my guns and kidney punched me." Deadshot chuckled breathlessly. Fellyra just rolled her eyes and released the safety on both the guns.

Then Talia started to laugh, a condescending one that had Fell's blood boiling. "Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt that Marx would shoot us if he knew we wouldn't get the upper hand at that moment. But you? Someone who thinks of themselves as a hero? You won't shoot us no matter what."

Talia raised her weapon once more, so sure of herself that she didn't fear for her life as long as Fellyra held the gun. But then a loud bang echoed around the mountain, a bullet embedding itself in the wall right behind Talia. The bullet had come so close to Talia, that it clipped her ear and blood blossomed at the wound.

Fellyra moved the gun back so that it was aimed at the center of Talia's forehead. The room had grown silent and even Marx looked at the teen shocked. "I promise you that the next one won't miss if you stay here and continue to threaten my friends. I'm no hero and I have no problem ending you right here right now if it means my friends are safe."

Klarion began to giggle loudly, excited by the turn of events and the golden glint that had settled in Fellyra's eyes. A red vortex appeared behind him and Talia. "Well, this escalated quickly, which means it's time for us to retreat. See ya later armadillo."

Both him and Talia stepped back into the vortex and they were gone in the blink of an eye. And although the two had disappeared, Fell and Marx kept their weapons trained on where the two villains once stood until the magic released the heroes behind them. Once they were free, Fellyra relaxed and began to unload the guns she had and tossed them aside.

"Okay." Deadshot groaned. "They're gone and I held up my end of the deal, so let me up."

"Deal?!" Captain Boomerang exclaimed.

Fellyra ignored him and held out her hand to Deadshot and helped him to his feet. "Thanks for the warning beforehand. Who knows would have happened if I hadn't had a warning."

"We were lucky that Marx was on your side. If the cure hadn't worked, I don't think we could have taken them."

"What is going on!?" Kid Flash exclaimed as Flash and Batman moved to put handcuffs on Captain Boomerang. Marx held up his hands in surrender and slowly placed his gun on the ground before kicking it away. To be cautious, Batman handcuffed Marx who didn't struggle like Captain Boomerang.

"I asked Waller if I could borrow one of her toys," Fellyra said simply. "So, we made a deal. Deadshot gets 10 years off his prison sentence if he successfully helps me infiltrate the Light and find out what they were planning with Marx."

"I would have taken that deal!" Captain Boomerang. "Hell! 10 years! That's the rest of my prison sentence, I would have made that deal."

"You were trying to break out and make deals with the Light already." Fellyra deadpanned. "You would have told them everything. You're lucky that Waller didn't blow your head the minute you forced your way out with Deadshot."

"Deadshot said he hacked our bombs!"

"I'm not a hacker," Deadshot told him.

"Oh, man! The bombs are still intact?"

Fellyra nodded before using her magic to call forth another set of handcuffs and locking Deadshot up. The man didn't struggle, mostly because he knew he would have to go back for a few weeks before he would be let free for time served.

"What's the plan now?" Wonder Woman asked and Batman narrowed his eyes at Fellyra. Although it seemed like Fell was acting, he couldn't forget how Fell not only shot a gun, but she aimed it back at Talia's head without an ounce of hesitation. The fact that Fellyra admits that she's not a hero and was willing to make a deal that provided the freedom to someone like Deadshot made Batman weary of her. Not only that, but there's the broadcast of Fell and Marx fighting… _The ends justify the means, remember?_

Fellyra made her way over to Marx with Deadshot and Deadshot dropped down next to Captain Boomerang. "First, I'm going to bring Marx back to our Earth, and then after, I'll bring Ira back to Earth X."

Kaden eyed Fellyra's right bicep, suspecting that the mark had probably spread quite a bit. Fellyra met his eyes and then glanced at her bicep before adding, "I might have to wait a few days before I take you home, Ira. I've already used a lot of magic and I'm not sure I can make two trips."

"That's fine. I don't mind staying here for a bit." Kaden relaxed and smiled at her softly. "I'll call the others and let them know I'm okay."

"Tell them I'm sorry," Marx said suddenly and all eyes turned to him. "I don't know what was wrong with me and I wouldn't have done everything I did if not for that stupid drug.."

"It was the Rage," Fellyra told him. "It's almost like another being is telling you to do everything bad you've ever thought of. If I had warned you about it, it may not have been able to take you over."

Marx frowned. "I'm sorry for what I did to you, kid. I blamed you for Mei's death and you were barely eleven years old and then I tortured you, even killed you."

"An eye for an eye."

"And I'm the reason Holden died. I killed your brother, yet you've gone out of your way to save me."

Fellyra's face twisted into a frown. "If I can't be blamed for Mei's death, then I cannot blame you for Holden's. He made his choice to go after you knowing that Ra's had agreed to resurrect me. All you did was trap him and left him. The police were the ones that blew the warehouse; you couldn't have known."

"I left him there with the intention that he'd never be found."

"And I've forgiven you," Fellyra said finally. The room fell into stunned silence. Fellyra rubbed at the mark on her arm and her eyes saddened. "I don't have enough time left in the world to hold a grudge against someone who wasn't in control of their actions."

Kaden's soft smile fell from his face and Marx looked at Fellyra confused. Before he could ask what Fellyra meant, the rest of the people in the Mountain rushed in, looking ready for a fight.

"You're late!" Kid Flash scolded.

Fellyra just chuckled before laying a hand on Marx's shoulder. She didn't get to hear their argument because she had cast her spell to bring Marx and her to Earth X-2. One of her problems was taken care of, two more to go.


End file.
